Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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376. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons employed in her Department that have a formal agreement to work from home one day per week, two days per week and five days per week; her 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. [44587/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As an essential service, staff in the Department of Social Protection continued, in 2021, to work both onsite and remotely to deliver services to our customers as part of temporary working arrangements put in place by local business areas. It is necessary for staff providing front line customer services to do so in-person at office locations.

The number of staff who were working remotely at any one time across all business areas of the Department during 2021 was approximately 50% of the total staffing number. During 2022 to date, this number remained relatively constant and was a continuation of the temporary working arrangements put in place by local business areas.

In March 2022, the Blended Working Policy Framework for Civil Service Organisations was published. In June 2022, my Department published a formal Blended Working Policy, informed by the Framework. The introduction of this formal policy draws a line under all prior temporary arrangements, with formal agreed Blended Working arrangements commencing on 12th September 2022. Under the Policy, my Department will operate varied on-site attendance levels and patterns based on eligibility criteria to include business requirements, individual and role suitability, and remote workstation arrangements. Work patterns range from a minimum attendance of 4 days per calendar month to full attendance on-site.

To avail of Bended Working under the policy, staff must formally request a blended working arrangement by following an application process which takes the eligibility criteria into account as part of the decision making process.

As at 7th September 2022, under the Policy, from 12th September, approximately 50% of the total staff number will have a formal agreement in place to commence a form of blended working arrangement from that date. This can be broken down as follows: 662 have a formal agreement to work from home one day per week, 1040 officers two days per week and 2 officers five days per week. These formal agreements will end in December 2022 after which staff must apply again under the Blended Working Policy and follow an annual process thereafter. This is to support a rotation of opportunity for a wide number of staff to avail of Blended Working where possible.

It is expected that these figures will change over time. This will include changes in the immediate term as staff return in September 2022 following planned absences including annual leave and shorter working year. In the medium to longer term, numbers will evolve due to changing business needs, the annual application process, staff movement, changes in roles, and staff turnover. There is also inherent flexibility in the policy for staff to opt-out of or adapt their blended working arrangements at any time subject to agreement, and inherent flexibility in the policy on the requirement for staff to attend onsite in person as business needs arise.

As there was no formal applications process in 2021, no staff had had their application for blended working declined during that period. Under the Policy's application process 2022 to date, 208 officers have had their application for blended working declined based on one or more of the eligibility criteria above not being satisfied.