Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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71. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the steps he will take to address Irish citizens living in Northern Ireland being frozen out the the job market in the south with some remote working positions stipulating an address in the south as a requirement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25340/22]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The Employment Equality Acts 1998 to 2015 prohibit an employer from discriminating against an employee or prospective employee in relation to access to employment, conditions of employment, training or experience for or in relation to employment, promotion or regrading or classification of posts.

Employers are required to operate fair recruitment procedures from the outset that are free from discrimination in order to be compliant with their obligations under the Act. For example, job advertisements, interview questions, job application forms etc, must be free from discrimination on any (or all) of the nine discriminatory grounds provided for in the Act, including race and nationality. The Employment Equality Acts 1998 to 2015 fall under the remit of the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

In the context of Pillar 1 of the National Remote Work Strategy, published in January 2021, a commitment was made to legislate to provide employees with the right to request remote work. This is one of the key actions of the Strategy.

In line with that Strategy, on 25th January the Government approved the priority drafting of the Right to Request Remote Working Bill 2022. This will provide employees with a right to request remote work and provide a legal framework around which requesting, approving or refusing such a request can be based. It will also provide legal clarity to employers on their obligations for dealing with such requests. The draft legislation provides that any employee with 6 months service can nominate a location from which they wish to work remotely and the employer must consider that application.

Pre-legislative scrutiny of the General Scheme by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment commenced on 9th February and Departmental officials are scheduled to attend a further meeting on the 18th of May.