TODAY, THE DÁIL will debate the Right to Remote Work Bill proposed by opposition parties.

On paper, the Bill might sound attractive, but in reality, rather than offering a ‘right to remote work’, it is more of a ’right to request remote work’. I feel it prioritises sound bites over strategy and is entirely lacking in innovation or ambition.

The Bill is a relic of an outdated way of thinking, which seeks to pit employees against employers and assumes every workplace is the same. After seven years working on remote employment in Ireland, I believe this mindset is a distraction from the real opportunities when it comes to remote work.

And let me be clear, the opportunities offered by remote work are immense for both the Irish workforce and the future and resilience of the Irish economy.

Remote-first

The big opportunity – which the opposition completely ignores – is to make Ireland a world-leading centre for the rapidly-growing ‘Remote-first’ sector; and to get ‘Remote-first’ companies to set up and to recruit in Ireland.

I’m not talking about freelance, temporary or contract positions, or digital nomadism, where the worker moves between countries and the tax follows them. This isn’t hybrid, where you still need to live within commuting distance of an office. I am talking about full PAYE remote-first employment, bound to the Irish tax system, pensionable, with career progression and employer accountability. The only difference is that it’s not bound to a physical location.

Automattic, a US tech firm that is responsible for the creation of large publishing platforms, such as WordPress, generates over $900 million in revenue with a fully distributed team, and they hire in Ireland. Closer to home, Kinora Finance, Zyte, and Otonomee are brilliant Irish companies with remote work built into how they operate.

These are not outliers. They represent a growing and exciting category of employment that works, and that people want.

‘Grow Remote’, Ireland’s largest community of remote workers, has done their homework. There are over 100,000 remote jobs advertised across Europe every month. The average remote work salary is nearly €20,000 higher than in Ireland’s five lowest-income counties.

These are higher-skilled, higher-value jobs available on a global basis. By investing in a remote-ready workforce, Ireland can compete on that global stage and win them with every community in the country set to benefit.

Right to remote vs right to request remote

So, where does the ‘right to remote work’ versus the ‘right to request remote work’ debate come into it?

Legislation is an important component of a national remote work strategy, but it’s not the whole strategy. Good legislation should set out a process and the expectation that, where remote work can be accommodated for employees, the State expects an employer to do so.

But equally, the State should then support employers with infrastructure to lean in, by building a remote-ready workforce of workers, managers and leaders — State agencies and departments included.

The best strategy for remote work ensures demand is matched with supply. The opposition’s ‘right to remote’ bill will not do that.

Remote work must not be framed as a them-versus-us issue. When it’s done well, it is massively effective. And despite the negative press from some of its misplaced detractors, it continues to flourish in Ireland.

Official figures from the CSO show that between 2019 and 2025, the number of Irish people working from home at least some of the time had doubled to nearly one million. That’s more than during the pandemic and since the current legislation around remote working was introduced. Another strong indicator is that the number of people usually working at home had more than tripled to nearly 560,000.

Consulting the workforce

Noting this progress, the Government recently ran a national consultation on the right to request remote work, one of the most popular consultations in the history of the State with over 8,000 submissions. The Government wants to hear where it’s working and where it’s not.

Without knowing the results, I believe the current legislative framework can and should be strengthened, particularly with protections for those whose established and proven work patterns are being changed arbitrarily. But proposals to go further – such as a legal mechanism to force employers to accommodate remote work — could be counterproductive.

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In other countries, remote work arrangements depend on employer-employee agreements or specific conditions in law or regulation. The employer must consider the request, though they can still refuse for legitimate business reasons. What varies across countries is the spectrum of what a business can refuse. It is still, however, based on a right to request.

This Bill, being debated this week, promises something that doesn’t exist anywhere in the world, a ‘right to remote work’, as opposed to a ‘right to request remote work’. For those committed to the growth of remote work, I believe it misses the point. Focusing on the ‘Right to Remote’ risks sending us down an expensive detour.

Outdated mindsets are failing those who want to work remotely and those who want to create remote working jobs. Remote-first companies don’t care about location. They want the best of talent in communities that can sustain them, and we already know how to do that.

Ireland is really good at job creation, and we are really good at building community. We have the experience, the learnings and the tools from previous job strategies. We just need to adapt them into a coordinated strategy for remote work and invest in it.

Until we understand that remote jobs currently come to Ireland through individuals, not through agencies securing capital investment, we will misunderstand what the solutions are.

It’s time for the next step – much bigger than we have taken before – a new national strategy, at scale, that will have a halo effect on other companies and will transform remote work from a political football into a valuable new reality for both the Irish economy and the Irish workforce.

Emer Currie is a Fine Gael TD for the Dublin West constituency.