Leo Varadkar has said employers should facilitate working from home as long as business gets done, and “the services provided to the public aren't diminished in any way".
He said that although remote working will come to an end for most over the coming months, employers will have to allow for some exceptions.
"I'm a big fan of remote working and hybrid working and home working,” he told Newstalk’s Breakfast Business with Joe Lynam.
"I think it'll be very good in terms of rural and regional development, to get more people working in remote hubs in small towns and villages.”
He went on to say: "My basic view is that employers should facilitate it, and should be willing to do so - provided the business gets done, and provided the services that are provided to the public aren't diminished in any way.
"That'd be my kind of benchmark as to whether people should be allowed to work remotely or work from home.”
The Covid-19 pandemic threw businesses into the air in 2020 as employees took weeks to settle into remote ways of working, however, many now prefer this method and are contesting a full return to the office.
Varadkar insisted that WFH can’t “be an absolute right,” because it may not work for some businesses.
"During the pandemic, it was a requirement, as much as possible after the pandemic I want it to be a choice,” he explained.
"But we also need to be realistic, it can't be an absolute right.
"There's lots of jobs that can't be done remotely.
"There's some things that you could do remotely, but they wouldn't be done as well and then service users would lose out.
"So we need to be realistic about that".
