Flexible Work and Commuter Delays: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21
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Eoghan Kenny (LAB), Cork North-Central

I thank my colleague, Deputy Wall, for bringing this motion forward. The right to request flexible work is not even a half measure. It merely formalised the ability of a worker to request flexible work. Workers were not prohibited from making this request prior to that. This once again puts the entirety of the power balance in favour of the employer. The employer has no responsibility to accommodate flexible work for their employee. Does the Minister of State think that granting workers the right only to request flexible work is actually helpful to employees?
Flexible work is vital for workers. For parents, it is an absolute necessity. With childcare in crisis in terms of both costs and places due to Government failure to address the sector, workers need that flexibility for school runs, after-school activities and to actually spend some time with their children. For people with illnesses, disabilities and accessibility issues, flexible work opens up the job market. It removes the barriers of inaccessible workplaces. It allows someone who may not be within commuting distance of their workplace to seek accommodation that is suitable to their needs. Flexible work has benefited rural Ireland and rural economies. People with flexible work can move back to their towns and villages. This reduces the competition in the housing and rental markets in our big cities. People can spend more time in their localities and more money in their local economies.
Multinationals in Cork last year began rowing back on flexible work practices in line with decisions made in the US by the Trump Administration. These companies employ many people in Cork and across Ireland and I fully support them but we must ensure Irish workers have their rights to fall back on and that companies cannot pull the rug from under them just because some idiot on the other side of the world has a hissy fit.
Public transport must be better incentivised. So many of us, whether urban or rural, use private cars and the State must take action to encourage people onto public transport, but people living in rural Ireland often cannot do that. They rely solely on the car. No matter where you are in the country, ghost buses - buses cancelled without notice - cause people to miss appointments and be late for work or school. This drives home the idea that we must all be in our cars. A person cannot even hop on a bus and tap their bank card. The facts speak volumes about how determined the State is to incentivise public transport. Look at the car parks at train stations. Some are operated by Iarnród Éireann but more by APCOA and other contractor companies. If the Government will not reduce the cost of public transport itself, then at least make parking at stations free and leave Iarnród Éireann car parks in Iarnród Éireann operation and incentivise people out of their cars.
I would have liked more time on this. It is an important topic and one that I hope many across the House will support.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-31T01:00:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-21