Credit: Merrion Street
connectivity and the future of work report
Leo Varadkar TD: The changing world of work The pandemic changed the world of work forever. Millions of people and businesses around the world moved overnight from the office to home working. This shift might have taken decades if it had been planned. Instead, it took days, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar TD writes. On balance, these are changes for the better. Less commuting, more time for family and leisure, and potentially fewer transport greenhouse gas emissions. New job opportunities are being created for people who want to live in rural Ireland, people with disabilities, and people with caring responsibilities. Small towns and villages have seen new investment, along with greater footfall and spend. But there are risks as well. We do not want to turn our homes into workplaces where we are always on. We want to spread jobs more evenly across the country, but we do not want to lose them to other countries. We want to retain the creativity and innovation that flourishes from people meeting each other and do not want people to become isolated. We want our city centres to remain vibrant places. So, in early 2021, I published Ireland’s first Remote Work Strategy. It is a crossgovernment plan to ensure we approach remote working cohesively and make it a permanent feature of Ireland’s workforce in a way that can benefit all – economically, socially, and environmentally.
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