Flexible Work and Commuter Delays: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21
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Ken O'Flynn (II), Cork North-Central

The motion actually has tremendous merit, in fairness. There are ups and downs in the motion and some things about which I would be very sceptical or cautious. It gives the Government a get-out-of-jail card at times.
I will talk about my own constituency. Where is the Cork Luas? It was announced three or four times. There is no shovel in the ground. Where is the northern ring road around Cork? Where is the northern distributor road? It is seven or eight years away. Where is the Mallow distributor road? Where is the orbital bus for Mallow that takes people from my estate to the other side of Mallow or from my estate in Ballyviniter up to the train station so people can genuinely commute?
In parts of north Cork, west Cork and east Cork, we have no broadband connections. People could not work from home. They physically could not work from home because there is no broadband available and certainly not at the bandwidth people would need to work from home. Foreign direct investment has resulted in 52,000 jobs in Cork. I heard a Member here talk about American companies in a very derogatory way. I am very thankful for that foreign direct investment in my constituency and for the 52,000 jobs in Cork. I am very thankful for that, and I do not think we should be nasty about foreign direct investment or nasty about companies when we do not really know what we are talking about when it comes to employment.
Working from home benefits a lot of people, but it is a double-edged sword. I have seen people being isolated in their own homes as well. They have lost the connection with their workplace. We have to be cognisant of that. We have to be cognisant of the fact that there are many people who start in a new job or new role or who come into this country and work who do not have a huge network of people around them. They also have a situation where they are learning on the job. It is a bit more difficult to send an email to somebody and ask them to explain how to do A, B, C and D rather than nudge the fellow at the next desk to ask how we really get over this problem. We have to be cognisant of that. I support the motion. It is a very well-intentioned motion, but it is not the be-all and end-all, and it is certainly not the answer to everything.

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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