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Remote working practices and its impact on the quality of life across the island of Ireland

Vanessa Boullet
p. 35-51

Résumé

Remote working and its impact on the quality of life in Ireland has been significantly influenced by various factors such as the increased participation of women in the labour market, digitalisation and the flexibilisation of the labour market. The various lockdown measures imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated this transformation by forcing many employees to implement remote working. Although working from home offers advantages such as flexibility and savings in time and money, it also has disadvantages, such as social isolation and communication difficulties. The Irish government has examined the issue since 1998 and has published several reports. Before the pandemic, only a fraction of employees worked from home, but after the pandemic it became commonplace, with increased interest in a blended model. However, the shift is not without its challenges, including the work-life balance, and increased gender inequalities. To regulate such practices, the European Union has encouraged Member States to draw up national action plans, but regulations in Ireland remain unclear. Furthermore, the particular situation of cross-border workers between Ireland and Northern Ireland presents additional challenges in terms of social benefits, social security and taxation. In conclusion, remote working can have both positive and negative impacts on workers’ quality of life, and it is up to each stakeholder, including employees, employers and government, to take steps to mitigate the risks and maximise the benefits of this practice.

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Introduction

  • 1 Ramya Chari, Chia-Chia Chang, Steven L. Sauter, Elizabeth L. Petrun Sayers, Jennifer L. Cerully, Pa (...)
  • 2 Julia L.O. Beckel & Gwenith G. Fisher, “Telework and Worker Health and Well-Being: A Review and Rec (...)

1Over the last few years, the transformation of the world of work has been accelerated by different factors such as increasing labour market participation of women, global competition, digitalisation, and flexibilisation of the labour market. This revolution has also been accelerated by the different lockdowns imposed by governments during the Covid-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2022: many were forced to experiment working from home. Despite all the difficulties in working with their family around, many employees acquired a taste for remote working. Today, while some people work full-time, either from the office or from home, most workers now practice hybrid working, alternating between the office and home, or even on the go. The wellbeing-related benefits of remote work are well-recorded in the literature. In this paper, we will reuse the conceptualisation of worker wellbeing described by Chari who defined wellbeing as “quality of life with respect to an individual’s health and work-related environmental, organizational, and psychosocial factors. Wellbeing is the experience of positive perceptions and the presence of constructive conditions and work and beyond that enables workers to thrive and achieve their full potential”.1 Therefore, in the literature and surveys, it is usually explained that workers benefit from an improvement in their quality of life thanks to more flexibility, more free time, and savings for instance. However, the literature usually does not assess all the risks of blended work as they usually concentrate on telework.2 In the Republic of Ireland, the Irish government investigated the matter as early as 1998, long before Covid-19. It has published several reports on how to develop remote working and improve the lives of the Irish people, as well as pointing out its limitations. In Northern Ireland, reports on remote working was published during the Covid-19 pandemic by the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre. This paper investigates to what extent this new way of working has impacted the quality of life of workers and cross-border workers in the Republic of Ireland. After having analysed the different definitions of remote working, we will consider the benefits and drawbacks of remote work on the quality of life of the Irish people, including the specific situation of the Irish cross-border workers who have to juggle with the regulations of the jurisdictions of Northern Ireland and those of the Republic of Ireland.

Definitions of remote work

  • 3 In the report Making Remote Work: National Remote Work Strategy, it was explained that many express (...)

2Many definitions of remote working3 exist. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) distinguishes between homework and telework. Homework is generally defined as:

work carried out by a person (i) in his or her home or in other premises of his or her choice, other than the workplace of the employer; (ii) for remuneration; (iii) which results in a product or service as specified by the employer, irrespective of who provides the equipment, materials or other inputs use.4

  • 5 Ibid.

3Home work is also associated with “generally poorly paid and in insecure jobs or working on a piecework basis with no contract of employment”.5 In this paper, we will not investigate the cases of those home workers, also called outworkers. We will concentrate on teleworkers. According to the EU, remote work is defined as:

A form of organising and/or performing work, using information technology, in the context of an employment contract / relationship, where work, which could also be performed at the employer’s premises, is carried out away from those premises on a regular basis.6

  • 7 Government of Ireland, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Making Remote Work, National (...)

4The Government of Ireland offers a similar definition in the National Remote Work Strategy (2021): “remote work refers to the broad concept of an arrangement where work is fully or partly carried out at an alternative worksite other than the default place of work”.7

Statistics on remote workers in the Republic of Ireland

  • 8 Central Statistics Office (CSO), Report on the public consultation on content of Census 2021 and th (...)
  • 9 but 26% did not indicate the number of days, 6% 3 days a week and 3% 4 days a week. Ibid, p. 24.
  • 10 Ibid., p. 24

5Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) already investigated the extent of remote working in Ireland. For example, the 2018 Irish census revealed that 18% of workers declared working from home on some basis.8 Even though, at the time the vast majority still worked in their workplace (4/5), it started to create an inequality between those who could work from home and the others. Of those working from home, 35% reported that they worked from home one day per week, 13% reported working from home two days a week and 11% worked from home the whole week.9 Among the sectors of people working from home, we can find at the top of the rankings: ‘science, research, engineering and technology professional” and ‘computer programming, consultancy and information service activities.” Contrarywise, only 0.6% of working from home workers were in the “Process, plant and machine operatives” occupation category.10 It was also indicated:

  • 11 Ibid., p. 24

Approximately 60% of people who work from home were male. (…) The percentage of those working from home increased as age increased, peaking at 19.6% of those at work in the age group 45-49.11

  • 12 Central Statistics Office (CSO), Employment and Life Effects of COVID-19, 2020, https://www.cso.ie/ (...)
  • 13 NUIG’s Whitaker Institute and the WDC carried out several studies in May 2020, October 2020, and Ap (...)
  • 14 Alma McCarthy, Noreen O’Connor, Tomas Ó Síocháin & Deirdre Frost, Remote Working: Ireland’s Nationa (...)
  • 15 NUI Galway Whitaker Institute & Western Development Commission, Remote Working during COVID-19: Ire (...)
  • 16 The survey was based on 4,335 respondents, primarily from the Public Service. Fórsa, Public Consult (...)

6During the Covid-19 pandemic, three lockdowns were implemented in the Republic of Ireland in 2020 and 2021 and, as everywhere in the world, people were asked to work from home wherever possible. A CSO survey revealed that a third of persons aged 15 years and over (34%) started working from home for the first time12 while other surveys by the Whitaker Institute from the University of Galway (NUIG) and the Western Development Commission (WDC) indicated that half of the respondents (51%) had never worked remotely before the Covid-19 crisis.13 NUIG’s Whitaker Institute and the WDC’s surveys also revealed that in 2020, 83% then 95% in 2021 of the participants would like to work remotely after the pandemic for some or all of the time (60% would like to work from home14) while 16% and then 6% would not like to continue working remotely.15 Those figures also correspond to those of the trade union, Fórsa, which carried out a survey in July 2020. In this survey, 86% stated a preference for a hybrid form of work.16

  • 17 Alma McCarthy, Noreen O’Connor, Tomas Ó Síocháin & Deirdre Frost, 2022 Remote Working in Ireland - (...)
  • 18 Alma McCarthy, Luke McGrath, Deirdre Frost, Maeve O’Sullivan, Eoin Whelan & Allan Mulrooney, 2023 R (...)

7After the Covid-19 crisis, hybrid work significantly developed for those who could: the “2022 Remote Working in Ireland” survey revealed that “52% of respondents currently worked hybrid”.17 In 2023, after the Covid-19 crisis, the figures increased again and the “2023 Remote Working in Ireland” survey revealed that 59% of respondents worked hybrid (35% work remotely 3 days and onsite 2 days a week) and 38% worked fully remotely.18 The numbers of those working fully onsite even decreased further from 8% in 2022 to 3% in 2023. Those surveys are based on samples and so the figures are biased, but it nevertheless shows the extent of remote work nowadays. This situation may create inequality and resentment as for some occupations working from home may be difficult or not allowed as the worker needs to be in contact with people (especially in some occupations such as education, hospitality or health activities).

  • 19 CSO, Report on the public consultation on content of Census 2021 and the Census Pilot Survey 2018, (...)
  • 20 National Broadband Ireland, Remote Working in Ireland: A 2023 Benchmark An NBI and Grow Remote Repo (...)

8So over five years, remote working and hybrid work have evolved dramatically. Before Covid-19, only a fraction of workers, mostly freelancers or people working in information service activities work remotely.19 After the pandemic, employees clearly show a preference to work remotely at least part of the week, and employers adapted with agility. An interesting question in this workplace revolution is whether this switch to hybrid work and remote work has really improved the wellbeing and the quality of life of the Irish and Northern-Irish workers. Remote working can definitely improve people’s lives, but there are also many challenges, both for employees and their employers.20

The improvement of the quality of life

9The literature in Ireland and the different surveys carried out by Irish organisations pointed out the same benefits of remote and hybrid working: the main advantages are the elimination of a commute, reduced costs / savings and greater flexibility as to how to manage the day.

  • 21 Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Indecon Review of the Enterprise Agencies Economic (...)
  • 22 Kiron Chatterjee, Samuel Chng, Ben Clark, Adrian Davis, Jonas De Vos, Dick Ettema, Susan Handy, Ada (...)
  • 23 Central Statistics Office (CSO), Census 2022 Profile 7 - Employment, Occupations and Commuting, 202 (...)

10Reducing the amount of time spent commuting not only improves wellbeing and quality of time with more free time or more time to work, but it also brings stress reduction and savings. For instance, in 2017, the Department of Trade and Enterprise estimated “the average commuting time for Dubliners was 30.5 minutes which had a yearly cost of around €4,000 for an individual;21 Even though around half of the journeys took less than 30 minutes, half of the commuters had a commute of more than 30 minutes by train or public transportation (and 11% spent over an hour travelling to work). Studies have shown that when commuting, the mood is lower than during other daily activities and congestion, crowding and unpredictability can increase stress;22 Less commuting also has an impact on the number of people driving as 63% of commuters are in a car. Since 2016, the CSO has noted that the number of people commuting to work rose only by 8% whereas the number of people at work increased by 16%. This difference is due to those working from home, “up from 94,955 in 2016 to 259,467 in 2022”.23 Additionally, less commuting provides the opportunity to reduce congestion on the roads and transport related carbon emissions and air pollution, which in turn might increase the quality of life.

  • 24 “A survey by Indecon (2021), found that in over 30% of households where there is a person with a di (...)

11For caregivers, including parents, remote working also has benefits. Reduced commuting times can allow individuals to spend more time with the person they care for: whether children, elderly or disabled family members.24 They may also adjust their work schedules more easily to accommodate both their personal and professional needs.

  • 25 “Work–life balance is a term used to describe the level of prioritisation between an individual’s w (...)
  • 26 Quoted in Government of Ireland, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Making Remote Work (...)
  • 27 Thomas Lyttelton, Emma Zang and Kelly Musick, “Gender Differences in Telecommuting and Implications (...)
  • 28 Dominique Phillips, Gillian Paul, Majella Fahy & Attracta Lafferty, “The invisible workforce during (...)
  • 29 Government of Ireland, Remote Work in Ireland: Future Jobs 2019, Dublin: Department of Business, En (...)
  • 30 With Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. In Europe, (...)

12Combined with potentially more time for leisure and a better work-life balance,25 this may improve child and family wellbeing. Indeed, research from Barnardos stated that parents, especially of young children, wished to spend more time with their children26 and Lyttelton et al have shown that when working from home, parents spend more time with their children, which can ease the childcare burden of the other parent.27 Furthermore, Phillips et al explained that “if several household members work remotely, caring responsibilities may be more easily shared among household members, alleviating pressure on the primary family carer”,28 very often the mother. While remote working should not substitute childcare, it nevertheless helps families with more flexibility. It also allows them to decide their early learning and childcare choices, which may consequently mitigate the costs of early learning childcare;29 This is all the more important for families in Ireland as childcare costs are among the highest among OECD members.30

13In the literature we can find two different figures. In 2018, using data from 2011, the ESRI wrote:

  • 31 Helen Russell, Frances McGinnity, Eamonn Fahey & Oona Kenny, “Maternal employment and the cost of c (...)

On average, families paying for care spent 12 per cent of disposable income on the care of the three-year-old Study Child. This rose to 16 per cent for lone parent families and 20 per cent for those in the bottom income decile.31

  • 32 National Competitiveness Council, “Cost of Doing Business 2019”, (Dublin, April 2019), p. 8.
  • 33 Dominique Phillips et al., op. cit.

14While, in 2019, another study made by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation indicated higher figures: “in Ireland, the net cost of early learning and childcare is 28 percent of the average wage of a couple, while the EU average is notably lower at 12 percent”;32 As a result, high childcare costs can be a barrier to work. Phillips et al. showed that “enabling carers to remain in employment can increase carers’ levels of happiness, financial security, and social inclusion”;33 Other publications concur, pointing out that remote working can make it easier for women with families to stay in or re-join the workforce.

  • 34 Government of Ireland, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Making Remote Work, National (...)

15Similarly, work from home may also improve labour market participation amongst workers with disabilities or chronic illness, or older workers to support their health and wellbeing as it removes a commute and may enable a more flexible schedule. The literature also indicates that work from home can also facilitate the beginning of retirement and encourage longer working.34

  • 35 €180,00 in 2012, Q4, to 325,000 in 2023 Q4. Laura Slattery, “Asking prices for homes rise 4.1% in 2 (...)

16Remote working may also enable a more balanced regional development, as it may create job opportunities, attract and retain talent who want to live in rural Ireland or in a less urban environment. Choosing its location may improve its quality of life as housing pressures are less important than in big urban centres where rents and house prices have increased above the national average over the last years (national average house prices have increased by 180% between 2012 and 2023.35 In the survey by the Whitaker Institute from the University of Galway and the Western Development Commission:

  • 36 NUI Galway Whitaker Institute & Western Development Commission, “Remote Working during COVID-19: Ir (...)

23% said they would consider relocating and 16% said they may consider relocating. (…) 7% indicated that they have already relocated due to their experience of remote working since COVID-19.36

17Moreover, if more workers live in small towns and villages, it could help revitalize them with greater footfall and spending.

The drawbacks of remote work

  • 37 Government of Ireland, Making Remote Work, National Remote Work Strategy, op. cit.

18Thus, remote work may improve the quality of life of employees through different factors which can be summarized as follows: less stress, savings, more flexibility, more free and quality time. However, remote work also has drawbacks which are, according to various surveys: the lack of interactions and poor communication with colleagues while working from home, the difficulty to switch off from work at home, poor physical space, fragmentation of work and gendered inequality. All those factors may increase stress instead of reducing it and lower the quality of life and wellbeing.37

19First, the most obvious drawback is the lack of contact and communication. As interactions with colleagues and people mainly occurred online, some people may suffer from this lack of daily interactions with colleagues and this feeling of loneliness may jeopardize their wellbeing. This lack of social interactions and permanent connectivity may also lead to psychological risks.

  • 38 Alma McCarthy, Alan Ahearne, Katerina Bohle Carbonell, Tomas Ó Síocháin & Deirdre Frost, Remote wor (...)
  • 39 NUI Galway and WDC, “Remote Working Opportunities, Challenges and Policy Implications”, Dec. 2020, (...)
  • 40 Michael Gibbs, Friederike Mengel & Christoph Siemroth, “Work from Home & Productivity: Evidence fro (...)
  • 41 Thomas Lyttelton et al., op. cit., p. 7.
  • 42 Alexandre Mas and Amanda Pallais, “Valuing Alternative Work Arrangements”, American Economic Review(...)
  • 43 Alma McCarthy et al., 2023 Remote Working in Ireland Survey - Summary Findings Report, op. cit., p. (...)
  • 44 Thomas Lyttelton et al., op. cit., p. 7

20During the pandemic, many workers complained about the lack of a suitable workspace within their home. It is quite obvious that, if people work on the kitchen table, which seems to be a common workstation in the survey Remote Working During COVID-19: Ireland’s National Survey Initial Report, they may be disturbed more easily than if they work in a study.38 The CSO revealed that “over a fifth (22%) of the age group 35-44 years experienced difficulties in working from home with their family around, with difficulties declining as the age groups get older from the 35-44 age group”.39 Gibbs et al. noted that multitasking between work and family may create work interruptions and finally increased work hours and infringements of privacy as workers have lower productivity.40 Likewise, for firms, there are risks of cybersecurity and confidentiality. However, Gibbs et al. recognized that what happened during the pandemic could not be representative of the post-pandemic hybrid work model as the situation was exceptional. This blurrier boundary between work and home may also cause higher time pressure, family conflict or tension, and/or increase gender inequality, which may increase negative feelings and lower the overall wellbeing and life satisfaction. In a study about the United States, Lyttelton et al. explains that gendered inequality is in fact exacerbated by remote working as women have devoted time saved by working from home to housework and childcare while men have more time for work or leisure.41 This was confirmed by another study by Mas and Pallais who link teleworking with an increase of housework women do.42 That may explain why in the latest survey from NUIG’s Whitaker Institute and the WDC, women indicated having a slightly greater preference to work from the office.43 Finally, if remote working is gendered and women choose or are forced to work remotely more often than men, this may have negative consequences on their career advancement with fewer opportunities for promotion and fewer or smaller salary increases, thus widening the gender pay gap.44 This reduced visibility of women could eventually lower their quality of life and wellbeing.

21Besides, if working from home may mean more leisure time, we may wonder what people really do during their free time and if it is beneficial for them. As we have seen, it may mean more house chores for women. It may also mean less activity for people as they spend more time sitting and less time exercising, especially if more leisure time means watching TV or videos, playing video games, etc. A study during the covid-19 pandemic has shown that working from home was translated into around two more hours spent sitting. Other research studies have shown that working from home can lead to eye fatigue, back posture issues with excessive sitting and inadequate exercising, which cause weight gain, disease incidence and higher mortality.45 The Health and Safety Authority in Ireland has published documents (including an assessment of the work station) on safety and health guidance on remote working for employers and employees.46 We may also wonder the impacts on children as, from a young age, they observe their parents working from home on screens: do they feel that their parents enjoy spending time with their computers more than with their own children? Do children want to spend more time in front of screens like their parents?

  • 47 With a “rate of 67.3 per cent, Ireland is in the top three in Europe (together with Malta and Cypru (...)
  • 48 Alma McCarthy et al., Remote Working During COVID-19: Ireland’s National Survey Initial Report, op. (...)

22On the bright side, as the ESRI has noted in its Quarterly Economic Commentary, Spring 2024,47 in Ireland, under-occupancy is high in some families. There might be room to transform a bedroom in a study and therefore improve their wellbeing with a better and more ergonomic physical workspace. This could improve productivity and wellbeing on both sides as “the provision of better ergonomic equipment is one of the key changes suggested by employees to help with their well-being and productivity.”48

23Although the benefits of remote working seem quite clear, the adverse effects appear more insidious. As a result, the net benefits are unclear and associating the improvement of the quality of life and wellbeing with remote working is quite difficult and most likely depends on the individual’s specific conditions. In the US, Lyttleton concluded:

  • 49 Thomas Lyttelton, et al., op. cit., p. 27

Thus, if telecommuting increases parents’ flexibility in juggling work and family responsibilities, we find little evidence that this improves well-being.49

Regulations of remote work in Ireland

24As remote or hybrid working is implemented in many firms and is now expected by many, regulations in Ireland are unclear. Unless authorities implement policies, frameworks or codes of conduct to regulate telework arrangements and mitigate the aforementioned negative effects, the quality of life and wellbeing of Irish workers could suffer.

25Following the rise of remote work, in June 2021, the Council of the European Union invited Member States “to establish national action plans or national strategies addressing the opportunities and risks related to telework” and to:

amend their policies regulating telework or issuing guidance where appropriate, with regard to such considerations as health and safety, the organisation and monitoring of working time, effective checks by labour inspectorates and allowances to cover the costs of teleworking.50

  • 51 Ibid.
  • 52 Eurofound, “Working conditions and sustainable work: As Member States take different approaches to (...)

26The Council of the European Union also encouraged the social partners to be vigilant about the “rules on working time for teleworkers to allow them to effectively disconnect”51. Some EU countries have already amended their legislative frameworks. For instance, in September 2020, Spain voted laws on remote working and, in March 2021, Austria “partly amended its existing labour legislation by introducing a definition of home office.”52 

  • 53 Ibid.

27As early as 1998, the Irish Government established the National Advisory Council on Teleworking with the task of advising the Minister for Enterprise on telework and related employment opportunities. A first report was published in the early 2000s by the e-Work Action Forum: New Ways of Living and Working. Following the apex of the pandemic, in April 2021, the Taoiseach decided to introduce “a code of practice for employers and employees on the right to disconnect”53. Indeed, like the United Kingdom and most of central and Eastern Europe, the Republic of Ireland considered that remote working has to be negotiated at company level, not at state level.

North-South situation in Ireland

  • 54 Interviews conducted with Julien Guillaumond in 2023.
  • 55 Four interviews were conducted with Julien Guillaumond in 2023 with 8 people from the Republic and (...)
  • 56 Julien Guillaumond and Vanessa Boullet, “Covid-19 and the Irish Border. A Preliminary Analysis of C (...)

28While actions are taken within the Republic of Ireland or at the EU level, we also have to consider the issue of cross-border workers who work in one jurisdiction and live in another on the island. Cross-border working from home is currently not addressed in Ireland and EU regulations on one side and in UK or Northern Ireland regulations on the other side though it has implications for social and unemployment benefits, social security rights (access to care, through NHS or social security) and tax issues. Though work is not explicitly marked as one core domain of the Good Friday Agreement, it is linked to cooperation through bodies such as the Cross-Border Partnership Employment Services (CBPES) and the Chambers of Commerce along the border. In Ireland, the Covid-19 crisis revealed the case of the north-south workers. Interviews with Chambers of Commerce and organisations working in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland, close to the border, indicate that the quality of life at work is very important54. Irish cross-border workers have the same wish as any other employee: to be able to work from home at least one day a week. However, due to the lack of harmonisation between the two entities, this is quite complicated in terms of benefits, and even worse, it is not possible for Irish people living in the Republic and working in Northern Ireland to work from home without paying more income tax as there is no tax harmonisation. Indeed, a 1997 tax relief, called Trans-Border Workers’ Relief (TBWR), allows cross-border workers not to pay any Irish tax on their employment income (so they will pay their income tax via their employer, here in our case, in the United Kingdom). However, if the cross-border workers work from home, they lose their ability to claim this tax relief and therefore are liable to Irish taxation. As there are higher rates of personal income tax in Ireland than in the United Kingdom, this means that those cross-border workers, when they have blended work practices, pay, or at least are supposed to pay higher rates of taxation.55 During the pandemic, this tax law was relaxed, but was reestablished after two years in 2022. Still, those cross-border workers living in the Republic would like to carry on working from time to time at home without paying more taxes as their colleagues living in Northern Ireland: for those living in Northern Ireland and working in the Republic, the situation is slightly different as regulations in Northern Ireland allow them to benefit from up to 60 days of teleworking. One company director from an IT firm in Northern Ireland mentioned during an interview that this had also had an impact on recruitment, as employees were now aware of the possibility of teleworking. However, it is not clear whether this tax issue on working from home prevents workers from picking a job in Northern Ireland as no studies have been carried out. The employers and the workers created a group, the Cross-Border Workers Coalition, to lobby the Government of the Republic and the Northern Ireland Executive to repeal this tax law. So far, the coalition has managed to lobby politicians on both sides of the frontier and the Government of the Republic has decided to investigate further the case of those cross-border workers, but as they represent an insignificant number of workers in the Republic and it means a loss of revenue for the Irish Government, chances are quite low that this law will be changed under a Fianna Fail or Fine Gael Government. The Coalition has therefore brought their campaign to a standstill, waiting for better times.56

Conclusion

29To conclude, depending on how telework is implemented, it can support or undermine work–life balance and the quality of life of the workers. The improvement of the quality of life and wellbeing may vary according to each individual and firm, which means that it falls upon every agent to act to mitigate the risks of remote work. First, the employee can attempt to be in the best possible conditions to work efficiently at home. Second, to improve the quality of life of the blended workers, employers have a crucial role to play in moving the remote working agenda forward and proposing remote working arrangements suitable for the mental and physical wellbeing of their employees. To tackle work hazards linked to psychosocial well-being, the European Commission is funding projects to promote good mental health and prevent mental illness at work such as “Magnet4Europe”40 and “EMPOWER”41. Finally, the Irish Government has also a role to play in facilitating remote working in a way that enables most of the benefits and mitigates negative side-effects by raising awareness, providing guidance, developing infrastructure, removing barriers, and leading by example.

Vanessa Boullet is a Senior Lecturer in Irish studies at Université de Lorraine in Nancy, France. She is a member of the research lab IDEA, and is currently part of the GIS EIRE research network. Her research focuses on Irish studies and on the interactions between economy, society and politics in Ireland. . She has developed an interest in the impact of multinationals on the Irish economy and its uneven development as well as issues linked to well-being and cooperation between the north and the south of the island. She also tries to develop research in Business and Modern Languages departments in France and is the head of the editorial board of the journal Revue International des Langues Etrangères Appliquées.

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Lyttelton Thomas, Zang Emma and Musick Kelly, “Gender Differences in Telecommuting and Implications for Inequality at Home and Work”, 2020,  http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3645561.

Mas Alexandre and Pallais Amanada, “Valuing Alternative Work Arrangements”, American Economic Review, 107(12) (2017), https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20161500

McCarthy Alma, Ahearne Alan, Bohle Carbonell Katerina, Ó Síocháin Tomas & Frost Deirdre, Remote working During COVID-19: Ireland’s National Survey Initial Report, Galway, Ireland: NUI Galway Whitaker Institute & Western Development Commission, 2020, https://researchrepository.universityofgalway.ie/entities/publication/35a5c8da-e3ef-48fc-ac0b-1c13c56f5752.

McCarthy Alma, O’Connor Noreen, Ó Síocháin Tomas & Frost Deirdre, Remote Working: Ireland’s National Survey - Phase III Report, Galway, Ireland: NUI Galway Whitaker Institute & Western Development Commission, 2021, http://whitakerinstitute.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Remote-Working-National-Survey-Phase-III-Report-final.pdf

McCarthy Alma, O’Connor Noreen, Ó Síocháin Tomas & Frost Deirdre, 2022 Remote Working in Ireland - Survey Report, Galway, Ireland: NUI Galway Whitaker Institute & Western Development Commission, 2022, http://whitakerinstitute.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Remote-Working-Survey-Report-2022-final-updated.pdf.

McCarthy Alma, McGrath Luke, Frost Deirdre, O’Sullivan Maeve, Whelan Eoin & Mulrooney Allan, 2023 Remote Working in Ireland Survey - Summary Findings Report, Galway, Ireland: University of Galway & Western Development Commission, 2023, https://westerndevelopment.ie/publications/2023-remote-working-in-ireland-survey/

National Broadband Ireland, Remote Working in Ireland: A 2023 Benchmark An NBI and Grow Remote Report, 2023, https://nbi.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/NBI_Remote_Work_Report_Final-1.pdf.

National Competitiveness Council, “Cost of Doing Business 2019”, Dublin, April 2019, 59 pp.

NUI Galway Whitaker Institute & Western Development Commission, Remote Working during COVID-19: Ireland’s National Survey - Phase II Report, 2020.

NUI Galway Whitaker Institute & Western Development Commission, “Remote Working Opportunities, Challenges and Policy Implications”, Dec. 2020, https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/elec19/employmentandlifeeffectsofCovid-19/

OECD, “Is Childcare Affordable? Policy Brief on Employment, Labour and Social” (Paris, OECD, 2020), http://t4.oecd.org/els/family/OECD-Is-Childcare-Affordable.pdf.

Phillips, Dominique, Paul Gillian, Fahy Majella & Lafferty Attracta, “The invisible workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic: Family carers at the frontline”, HRB Open Research, 3(24) (2020), https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32551415/

Russell Helen, McGinnity Frances, Fahey Eamonn and Kenny Oona, “Maternal employment and the cost of childcare in Ireland”, Research Series, ESRI, 2018, https://www.esri.ie/publications/maternal-employment-and-the-cost-of-childcare-in-ireland

Slattery Laura, “Asking prices for homes rise 4.1% in 2023, says MyHome.ie”, The Irish Times, 8 January 2024, https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2024/01/08/asking-prices-for-homes-rise-41-in-2023-says-myhomeie/

Streeter Jialu, Roche Megan and Friedlander Anne, “From Bad to Worse: The Impact of Work-From-Home on Sedentary Behaviors and Exercising”, Stanford Center on Longevity, Policy Brief, 2021, https://longevity.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Sedentary-Brief.pdf.

Williamson Harry, An evaluation of the impacts of Remote Working, Dublin, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, 53 pp.

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Notes

1 Ramya Chari, Chia-Chia Chang, Steven L. Sauter, Elizabeth L. Petrun Sayers, Jennifer L. Cerully, Paul Schulte, Anita L. Schill, Lori Uscher-Pines, “Expanding the Paradigm of Occupational Safety and Health: A New Framework for Worker Well-Being”, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 60(7) (July 2018), pp. 589-593, DOI: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000001330.

2 Julia L.O. Beckel & Gwenith G. Fisher, “Telework and Worker Health and Well-Being: A Review and Recommendations for Research and Practice”, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 9(7) (2022), https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19073879.

3 In the report Making Remote Work: National Remote Work Strategy, it was explained that many expressions are used to refer to remote work such as “telework, e-Work, mobile work, smart working, telecommuting, flexible working, hub-work, locationless work, co-working, home office, virtual office and platform work, ICT-based mobile work (TICTM)”. As remote working and work from home are the broadest concepts encompassing all of these terms, we will use those two terms in this paper. Government of Ireland, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Making Remote Work: National Remote Work Strategy, 2021, p. 8.

4 Eurofound, European Industrial relations Dictionary, Definition of Homeworking, https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/en/european-industrial-relations-dictionary/homeworking.  

5 Ibid.

6 Eurofound, European Industrial relations Dictionary, Definition of telework, https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/en/european-industrial-relations-dictionary/telework.  

7 Government of Ireland, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Making Remote Work, National Remote Work Strategy, January 2021, p. 6.

8 Central Statistics Office (CSO), Report on the public consultation on content of Census 2021 and the Census Pilot Survey 2018, p. 24

9 but 26% did not indicate the number of days, 6% 3 days a week and 3% 4 days a week. Ibid, p. 24.

10 Ibid., p. 24

11 Ibid., p. 24

12 Central Statistics Office (CSO), Employment and Life Effects of COVID-19, 2020, https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/elec19/employmentandlifeeffectsofCovid-19/

13 NUIG’s Whitaker Institute and the WDC carried out several studies in May 2020, October 2020, and April 2021. NUI Galway Whitaker Institute & Western Development Commission, Remote Working during COVID-19: Ireland’s National Survey - Phase II Report (2020), https://westerndevelopment.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Remote-Working-National-Survey-Phase-II-Report-Oct-2020-Final.pdf

14 Alma McCarthy, Noreen O’Connor, Tomas Ó Síocháin & Deirdre Frost, Remote Working: Ireland’s National Survey - Phase III Report, Galway, Ireland: NUI Galway Whitaker Institute & Western Development Commission, 2021, p. 5, http://whitakerinstitute.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Remote-Working-National-Survey-Phase-III-Report-final.pdf

15 NUI Galway Whitaker Institute & Western Development Commission, Remote Working during COVID-19: Ireland’s National Survey - Phase II Report, 2020, https://westerndevelopment.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Remote-Working-National-Survey-Phase-II-Report-Oct-2020-Final.pdf

16 The survey was based on 4,335 respondents, primarily from the Public Service. Fórsa, Public Consultation on Guidance for Remote Working, 2020, https://westerndevelopment.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Remote-Working-National-Survey-Phase-II-Report-Oct-2020-Final.pdf

17 Alma McCarthy, Noreen O’Connor, Tomas Ó Síocháin & Deirdre Frost, 2022 Remote Working in Ireland - Survey Report, Galway, Ireland: NUI Galway Whitaker Institute & Western Development Commission, 2022, p. 4, http://whitakerinstitute.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Remote-Working-Survey-Report-2022-final-updated.pdf

18 Alma McCarthy, Luke McGrath, Deirdre Frost, Maeve O’Sullivan, Eoin Whelan & Allan Mulrooney, 2023 Remote Working in Ireland Survey - Summary Findings Report, Galway, Ireland: University of Galway & Western Development Commission, 2023, https://westerndevelopment.ie/publications/2023-remote-working-in-ireland-survey/
National Broadband Ireland, Remote Working in Ireland: A 2023 Benchmark An NBI and Grow Remote Report, 2023, https://nbi.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/NBI_Remote_Work_Report_Final-1.pdf

19 CSO, Report on the public consultation on content of Census 2021 and the Census Pilot Survey 2018, pp. 24-25.

20 National Broadband Ireland, Remote Working in Ireland: A 2023 Benchmark An NBI and Grow Remote Report, p. 1, https://nbi.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/NBI_Remote_Work_Report_Final-1.pdf

21 Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Indecon Review of the Enterprise Agencies Economic Appraisal Model in Ireland, 2018, p. 20, https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/publications/publication-files/review-of-the-enterprise-agencies-economic-appraisal-model.pdf

22 Kiron Chatterjee, Samuel Chng, Ben Clark, Adrian Davis, Jonas De Vos, Dick Ettema, Susan Handy, Adam Martin & Louise Reardon, “Commuting and wellbeing: a critical overview of the literature with implications for policy and future research”, Transport Reviews, 40(1) (2019), pp. 5–34, https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2019.1649317

23 Central Statistics Office (CSO), Census 2022 Profile 7 - Employment, Occupations and Commuting, 2023, https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cpp7/census2022profile7-employmentoccupationsandcommuting/commutingtowork/

24 “A survey by Indecon (2021), found that in over 30% of households where there is a person with a disability, there is someone in the household working fewer hours than they’d like due to caring responsibilities. The Indecon report calculated that lost household income as a result of working fewer hours amounted to €482 per week, on average. These figures were highest in households where a household member suffers from an “intellectual disability”. Harry Williamson, An evaluation of the impacts of Remote Working, Dublin: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, p. 18.

25 “Work–life balance is a term used to describe the level of prioritisation between an individual’s work and personal life. A good work–life balance is achieved when an individual’s right to a fulfilled life inside and outside paid work is accepted and respected as the norm – to the mutual benefit of the individual, business and society”. Eurofound, European Industrial relations Dictionary, Definition of work-life balance, https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/en/european-industrial-relations-dictionary/work-life-balance

26 Quoted in Government of Ireland, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Making Remote Work, National Remote Work Strategy, January 2021, p. 12.

27 Thomas Lyttelton, Emma Zang and Kelly Musick, “Gender Differences in Telecommuting and Implications for Inequality at Home and Work”, 2020,  http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3645561

28 Dominique Phillips, Gillian Paul, Majella Fahy & Attracta Lafferty, “The invisible workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic: Family carers at the frontline”, HRB Open Research, 3(24) (2020) pp. 4.

29 Government of Ireland, Remote Work in Ireland: Future Jobs 2019, Dublin: Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, 2019, 56 p.

30 With Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. In Europe, Ireland is close to the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Switzerland. OECD, “Is Childcare Affordable? Policy Brief on Employment”, Labour and Social, (Paris, OECD, 2020) p. 3.

31 Helen Russell, Frances McGinnity, Eamonn Fahey & Oona Kenny, “Maternal employment and the cost of childcare in Ireland”, Research Series, ESRI (2018), p. viii, https://www.esri.ie/publications/maternal-employment-and-the-cost-of-childcare-in-ireland, Karina Doorley, Dora Tuda, Alyvia McTague & Mark Regan, “Childcare in Ireland: Usage, Affordability and Incentives to Work”, The Economic and Social Review, 54(4) (Winter 2023), pp. 247-283.

32 National Competitiveness Council, “Cost of Doing Business 2019”, (Dublin, April 2019), p. 8.

33 Dominique Phillips et al., op. cit.

34 Government of Ireland, Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Making Remote Work, National Remote Work Strategy, January 2021, p. 9.

35 €180,00 in 2012, Q4, to 325,000 in 2023 Q4. Laura Slattery, “Asking prices for homes rise 4.1% in 2023, says MyHome.ie”, The Irish Times, 8 January 2024, https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2024/01/08/asking-prices-for-homes-rise-41-in-2023-says-myhomeie/
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2024/01/08/asking-prices-for-homes-rise-41-in-2023-says-myhomeie/

36 NUI Galway Whitaker Institute & Western Development Commission, “Remote Working during COVID-19: Ireland’s National Survey - Phase II Report”, 2020, p. 5.

37 Government of Ireland, Making Remote Work, National Remote Work Strategy, op. cit.

38 Alma McCarthy, Alan Ahearne, Katerina Bohle Carbonell, Tomas Ó Síocháin & Deirdre Frost, Remote working During COVID-19: Ireland’s National Survey Initial Report, Galway, Ireland: NUI Galway Whitaker Institute & Western Development Commission, 2020, pp. 4-5, https://researchrepository.universityofgalway.ie/entities/publication/35a5c8da-e3ef-48fc-ac0b-1c13c56f5752

39 NUI Galway and WDC, “Remote Working Opportunities, Challenges and Policy Implications”, Dec. 2020, p. 15,

40 Michael Gibbs, Friederike Mengel & Christoph Siemroth, “Work from Home & Productivity: Evidence from Personnel & Analytics Data on IT Professionals”, Working Paper No.2021-56, Becker Friedman Institute, University of Chicago, July 2021, https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/BFI_WP_2021-56.pdf.

41 Thomas Lyttelton et al., op. cit., p. 7.

42 Alexandre Mas and Amanda Pallais, “Valuing Alternative Work Arrangements”, American Economic Review, 107(12) (2017), https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20161500.

43 Alma McCarthy et al., 2023 Remote Working in Ireland Survey - Summary Findings Report, op. cit., p. 18.

44 Thomas Lyttelton et al., op. cit., p. 7

45 Jialu Streeter, Megan Roche and Anne Friedlander, “From Bad to Worse: The Impact of Work-From-Home on Sedentary Behaviors and Exercising”, Stanford Center on Longevity, Policy Brief, 2021, https://longevity.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Sedentary-Brief.pdf , p. 2.

46 See https://www.hsa.ie/eng/topics/remote_working/.

47 With a “rate of 67.3 per cent, Ireland is in the top three in Europe (together with Malta and Cyprus” (…) “Compared with other European countries, housing units in Ireland are, on average, bigger with less people living in them”. Lea Hauser, “under-occupied dwellings in Ireland”, Quaterly Economic commentary, ESRI (Spring 2024), pp. 34-38. https://www.esri.ie/publications/quarterly-economic-commentary-spring-2024

48 Alma McCarthy et al., Remote Working During COVID-19: Ireland’s National Survey Initial Report, op. cit., pp. 4-5.

49 Thomas Lyttelton, et al., op. cit., p. 27

50 Eurofound, European Industrial relations Dictionary, Definition of telework, https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/en/european-industrial-relations-dictionary/telework

51 Ibid.

52 Eurofound, “Working conditions and sustainable work: As Member States take different approaches to regulating telework, will the EU bring them into line?” 31 May 2021, https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/en/blog/2021/member-states-take-different-approaches-regulating-telework-will-eu-bring-them-line

53 Ibid.

54 Interviews conducted with Julien Guillaumond in 2023.

55 Four interviews were conducted with Julien Guillaumond in 2023 with 8 people from the Republic and Northern Ireland working in different organisations that help cross-border workers. Interviewees admitted that remote work was usually under the radar, either because before the pandemic, people were not aware of the necessity of declaring remote work to the tax authorities, or because people decided not to declare those days to pay fewer taxes.

56 Julien Guillaumond and Vanessa Boullet, “Covid-19 and the Irish Border. A Preliminary Analysis of Cross-Border Cooperation Considering Health and Work Issues”, Revue française de civilisation britannique, 28(2) (2023), https://doi-org.bases-doc.univ-lorraine.fr/10.4000/rfcb.11048.

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Vanessa Boullet, « Remote working practices and its impact on the quality of life across the island of Ireland »Observatoire de la société britannique, 32 | -1, 35-51.

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Vanessa Boullet, « Remote working practices and its impact on the quality of life across the island of Ireland »Observatoire de la société britannique [En ligne], 32 | 2024, mis en ligne le 31 décembre 2024, consulté le 17 mars 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/osb/6517 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/13byv

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Vanessa Boullet

Université de Lorraine, IDEA
vanessa.boullet@univ-lorraine.fr

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