Emer Currie urges stronger remote and flexible work laws
Emer Currie argued that employees in Ireland currently have no guaranteed right to flexible or remote work, only a right to request, and called for stronger legislation and a new national strategy. She praised past remote-work investments while warning that law alone cannot drive the cultural change needed and urged flexible work for carers to be de-gendered.
Main points
Emer Currie said the first line of the motion shows employees in Ireland have no right to flexible and remote work — only a right to request — and she urged that the legislation be strengthened so refusals rest on genuine business reasons.
Legislative concerns and international comparison
She cautioned against assuming legislation will fix cultural workplace issues, noting that the only country she found with a legal right to flexible and remote work is Finland, and even there it applies only to office workers.
Past strategy and investments
Currie pointed to the remote work strategy introduced in the last government, which invested in 400 co-working spaces, the national broadband plan, and training for companies and employees through Grow Remote, and she said those measures helped raise Ireland's remote-working statistics above most European countries.
Ambition and economic approach
She argued Ireland should aim to be the best country in the world for remote working, target digitally-first, globally remote companies to attract them to Ireland, and use their example to influence domestic firms on productivity and success.
Carers and gendered access to flexible work
Currie described the introduction of flexible work for carers "only up to 12" as a missed opportunity, and called for flexible-work entitlements to be de-gendered so they are available to everyone rather than typically accessed by mothers.
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I'm not going to spend two and a half minutes talking about the benefits of remote and flexible work because I spent five years talking about the benefits of remote and flexible work as my colleague Deputy Wall knows. I will say though because I have two and a half minutes that the first line of the motion is that employees in Ireland have no right to flexible and remote work only a right to request and I'd ask my Labour colleagues if they found a country that does give people a right to flexible work and remote work because the only one that I've found over the years is Finland and even in Finland it's only for office workers. So I think we have to be careful that the impression that legislation will fix all of this isn't accurate. You need a bigger approach when you're making cultural changes in a society and in workplaces and I would say that and that's what we did with the remote work strategy that was introduced in the last government and it brought in for it invested in 400 co-working spaces around the country and invested in the national broadband plan. It has invested in training companies with the cultural change and offering training to employees through Grow Remote that I'm involved in and that's why our statistics are so strong around remote working were higher than most countries in Europe in relation to the number of people working remotely fully all of the time and also that have acts that are that are working from home. Is it perfect? No and that's why it is the time to do a new strategy on remote working and flexible working to improve it to and protect what we have. Ireland should be the best country in the world for remote working. That should be our ambition. We should have a strategy that targets companies that work remotely, digitally first, globally and attract them to Ireland and then they would have a halo effect on companies in Ireland because it would show the productivity and the success levels of running those companies. Can the legislation be improved? It absolutely can be improved and I think that it should be improved. There's a spectrum when it comes to the right to request and we are on the wrong side of the spectrum in terms of that legislation having teeth and there are ways that we can make it a lot stronger so that it boils down to genuine business reasons if a company, if they have problems with remote work. But we should definitely be strengthening the legislation. And then just the last point I made, it was a missed opportunity with the introduction of flexible work for carers only up to 12. That is where the real cultural and social change would come when it is de-gendered and it is not just usually the mother that is accessing flexible work. It should be available to everybody as well. Thank you. David C. David C.: David C.: David C.: David C.:
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