Once again Government seems to be immune to the lived realities of people's lives. Both in theory and practice, remote and flexible work has proven its value. Workers delivered, businesses functioned and the economy kept moving, and yet Government came out with this diluted right to request that often ends in refusal. This is the lived reality of commuters in my constituency. A commute can take an hour and 45 minutes each way. That is three and half hours a day, five days a week. Across a 46-week working year that is 805 hours, the equivalent of over 100 working days a year gone. Those commutes are starting earlier and earlier because of congestion. For those paying at least an M4 toll each day that is €3.60 each way or €1,656 a year after tax simply to get to work. That is before fuel, insurance and maintenance on their car. Government speaks endlessly about modernisation, climate targets and regional development. Remote work and hybrid work advance all three of these. It reduces congestion, cuts emissions and keeps workers and families in their own communities. It gives them the opportunity to support local economies, businesses and shops, and it brings life back into smaller towns and villages. Yet workers are still forced to justify what has already been proven to be workable. If a worker is spending the equivalent of 100 working days a year commuting, if they are spending over €1,600 just to get them to work, then Government's so-called right to request is nothing more than a bureaucratic box-ticking exercise designed to create the illusion of a right but not an actual right. We need a genuine right to work remotely and flexible working hours. We need options that are based on fairness, reasonableness and consistency.

Sentiment score: 0.06