Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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537. To ask the Minister for Health the number of persons employed in his Department that have a formal agreement to work from home one day per week, two days per week and five days per week; his Department’s policy in respect of facilitating requests by persons to work from home; and the number of persons that have made requests to work from home in 2021 and to date in 2022, that have been declined. [44582/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Department, in line with all other Government Departments, has developed its own Blended Working Policy based on the Blended Working Policy Framework for the Civil Service.

The framework can be accessed at the link below - www.gov.ie/en/publication/da010-blended-working-policy-framework-for-civil-service-organisations/.

The Department’s policy was launched on the 30th of June 2022 and allows staff members to request a maximum of 3 days working remotely. The application process is ongoing and will be open until 30th of September 2022 for existing staff to make their applications.

To date we have received 339 applications for Blended Working from staff in the Department. No application has been refused; however all applications are only approved in principle until such time as the remote workplace is confirmed to be in compliance with relevant Health & Safety requirements.