Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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474. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment whether he has figures on the number of workers making use of remote working and flexible working arrangements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30725/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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The sudden onset of widespread remote working during the pandemic has led to a broader acceptance by employers and workers of remote working as a viable long-term option, along with increased interest in flexible working arrangements and work life balance more broadly. Remote, hybrid and flexible working arrangements have become a new normal for many workers.

The Government is committed to facilitating remote and flexible working in a way which maximises their economic, social and environmental benefits. The Government legislated for the right to request remote working for all employees- together with the right to request other forms of flexible working arrangements for parents and carers- through the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023. The Government delivered all 15 actions outlined in the National Remote Strategy, the implementation of which was overseen the by the Remote Work Interdepartmental Group based in my Department.

Programme for Government 2025, Securing Ireland’s Future, re-affirms this commitment to promoting flexible working arrangements that benefit both workers and employers.

According to the most recent Labour Force Survey data from the Central Statistics Office, in the first quarter of 2025, more than 6 in 10 people stated they never worked from home (1.75 million), with just over 1.0 million working from home at least part of the time. 554,500 (or 20% of those in work) were ‘mainly’ working from home, with 480,400 (17% of those in work) ‘sometimes’ working from home. Taken together, this means that 1.04 million people- or 37% of those in work- were working from home in some form in the first quarter of 2025. In absolute terms, this is the highest number on record. While this represents a decline in proportional terms since the very height of the pandemic, the proportion of workers working from home has been relatively stable since the ending of pandemic restrictions in early 2022, with absolute numbers increasing along with the overall expansion of Ireland’s labour force.

The data show that interest in remote working remains strong and point to remote and hybrid working having become the new normal for many workers. Trends in working from home between Q4 2019 and Q1 2025 are shown in figure 1 below and in table 2 (attached). No central data is currently available for the numbers availing of other types of flexible working arrangement at present, however.

Remote and flexible working arrangements have the potential to help create a more inclusive labour market and society. This is particularly true of for women, people with caring responsibilities, people with disabilities, and people in rural communities. This in turn gives employers access to a wider pool of talent, boosting labour market performance overall.

It is worth highlighting the contribution of flexible and remote working arrangements to achieving Ireland’s record levels of labour force participation, as noted in the Department of Finance’s 2023 Summer Economic Statement.