I propose to take Questions Nos. 188, 209 and 211 together.
Departments and Offices are currently working in line with Government COVID-19 guidance, which provides for home working to continue where possible.
My Department is an active participant on the interdepartmental working group that is developing a central policy framework for Blended Working in the Civil Service and which will be finalised in conjunction with employee representatives over the coming months. This framework will inform the development of organisation level blended working policies tailored to the specific requirements of each Department/Office, whilst ensuring a consistency of approach across key policy areas.
The Department’s Covid-19 Response Management Group meets weekly and continues to consolidate work already advanced in response to the pandemic in line with on-going Government guidance and recommendations.
The cost for providing equipment for the facilitation of Departmental staff to work from home from 01 February 2020 to 31 August 2021 is set-out below in tabular form. These figures are VAT inclusive:
Laptops and hybrids
|
-
|
2020/2021
|
|
Laptops
|
€154,489.05
|
|
Hybrids
|
€92,126.27
|
|
Total
|
€246,615.32
|
Computer Peripherals
|
-
|
2021
|
2020
|
Total
|
|
USB Multi-ports
|
€962.52
|
€146.4
|
€1,108.92
|
|
Cables
|
€2,232.55
|
N/A
|
€2,232.55
|
|
Headsets
|
€1,090.67
|
€3,500.25
|
€4,590.92
|
|
Monitors
|
€15,458.75
|
€7,660.5
|
€23,119.25
|
|
Keyboard+Mice
|
€1,399.99
|
€968.21
|
€2,368.20
|
|
Docks
|
€7,995.00
|
€9,394.74
|
€17,389.74
|
|
Total
|
€29,139.48
|
€21,670.1
|
€50,809.58
|
Phones, mobile Wifi access dongles, usage:
|
Handsets/dongles
|
€5,049.15
|
|
Usage
|
€1,316.1
|
|
Total
|
€6,365.25
|
Licences:
|
-
|
2020
|
2021
|
|
|
Citrix licence
|
€34,917
|
€2,672.11
|
|
|
Citrix licence tokens
|
€2,110.47
|
€712.05
|
|
|
Total
|
|
|
€40,411.63
|
The position of those bodies under the aegis of my Department which have direct employees is detailed below, all figures provided are inclusive of VAT.
The Central Bank of Ireland, which also provides staffing and facilities for another body under the aegis of my Department, the Investor Compensation Company DAC, made a strategic decision in 2017 to replace desk top computers with Wi-Fi enabled laptop computers to facilitate and encourage collaboration and mobility within the North Wall Quay premises. As a consequence of this decision all staff were already equipped to work remotely from 16 March 2020 when Public Health restrictions were introduced. Approximately eight weeks after the introduction of these restrictions the Central Bank began a process of providing additional equipment such as a monitor, office chair, laptop stand, keyboard and mouse, to improve the ergonomic experience of remote working staff at a cost of €353,259. The Bank does not pay any contribution towards home telephony or Wi-Fi costs. The Bank is currently undertaking an impact assessment of potential future ways of working which will result in the introduction of an optional hybrid working model for the majority of staff. Temporary transitional working arrangements in line with current public health guidelines are in operation pending completion of this assessment.
The Credit Review Office (CRO) currently has 3 staff: 1 Credit Reviewer employed by my Department and 2 seconded from Enterprise Ireland. The CRO has incurred no additional costs in relation to remote working, and has received no applications for remote working to date.
The Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO) has taken measures to facilitate remote working since March 2020, in order to comply with public health measures in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic while ensuring it continues to fulfil its statutory role and meets the needs of its customers. The costs associated with the facilitation of remote working are as follows: €105,892 on IT equipment and €1,887 on telephony. The FSPO has not contributed to individual staff Wi-Fi or phone-related expenses. The costs detailed above relate to the provision of FSPO equipment to facilitate staff to work remotely. The FSPO has undertaken staff engagement surveys on remote working to assist in determining the future working arrangements of the FSPO in accordance with public health guidelines. The FSPO is examining the potential to pilot a blended working arrangement for team members, where appropriate, recognising that the primary focus of any future working arrangements will be delivery against the FSPO’s statutory role and ensuring the delivery of an efficient, accessible service for all its customers, while taking account the needs of staff and ensuring that Government policy in this area is implemented.
All staff of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council have been working remotely since March 2020 and continue to do so. The Council has invested approximately €7,500 in respect of the provision of laptops and equipment to facilitate remote working. The Council has a remote working policy in place with a hybrid-model applying on a physical return to the office.
The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) introduced remote working for employees in July 2019 by way of the NTMA Remote Working Guide. Since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, and in accordance with Government advice, NTMA employees have predominantly worked from home. It is the NTMA’s expectation that employees will not have to seek permission for hybrid working rather that a hybrid working model will be available to all employees. The costs incurred to date in terms of the provision of Laptops and ICT related peripherals to promote or facilitate remote work for staff are as follows: €207,260 on ICT equipment and €3,191 on reimbursement of employee costs incurred on personal mobile accounts for the purposes of carrying out work. While the NTMA Remote Working Guide is dated July 2019, costs were primarily incurred further to the impact of Covid-19 from March 2020 onwards. Under the terms of a Service Level Agreement, the NTMA provides staffing services to Home Building Finance Ireland, the National Asset Management Agency and the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland which are also bodies under the aegis of my Department.
Staff of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General are working remotely in line with current Government and HSE guidelines and will continue to do so until updated advice has been received. Due to the nature of the work of the Office, a degree of remote working was already facilitated prior to the current pandemic, a teleworking policy was in place and staff had the necessary equipment to work outside of the Office, at home or in client premises. The Office has been able to fund any additional costs associated with remote working during the pandemic from savings in other areas within the Office’s voted allocation. A model for the future of work in the Office developed with extensive staff consultation, has recently been approved by the Audit Board. The model will facilitate a hybrid working arrangement enabling staff to divide their time between remote and in-office work while ensuring that the business objectives are achieved. The model will form the basis of a blended working policy for the Office to be developed once the central policy framework has been agreed.
Most staff at the Office of the Revenue Commissioners have been working remotely since March 2020. Generally in excess of 75% of Revenue’s staff are remote working each week. Revenue staff are currently continuing to work in line with Government Covid-19 guidance, which provides for home working to continue where possible. Revenue is an active participant on the interdepartmental working group that is developing General Principles to inform a longer term remote working framework for the Civil Service. It is expected that the central policy framework for Blended Working in the Civil Service will be finalised in conjunction with employee representatives over the coming months. This framework will inform the development of Revenue’s future blended working policy. The primary objective of the longer-term framework will be towards ensuring that Revenue’s business requirements are fully supported and will also be in accordance with the objectives of the “Programme for Government – Our Shared Future” in relation to the availability of remote working for staff in the Public Sector. Revenue is also actively participating with other Government Departments in the design of the application process that will be used to administer staff requests to work from home once the current Covid-19 restrictions are lifted. In a survey of Revenue staff carried out in May 2021, 67% of respondents indicated that they favoured blended working for the future. Revenue’s key expenditure figures for equipment to enable homeworking since March 2020 are €565,000 on laptops, €92,000 on headsets, €39,000 on network equipment, and €447,200 on mobile phones.
The Tax Appeals Commission has drafted a remote working policy for its staff members but is awaiting final guidelines and direction from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform before implementation can take place. The new remote working policy is expected to be offered to all staff members. The Commission spent €27,847 procuring laptops for the majority of staff to enable employees to work from home. This expenditure was also necessary for the Commission to move to a “Build To Share Desktop Service” in August 2020 provided by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer. This support now underpins the ICT infrastructure that maintains the Commission’s business services including servers, storage, government networks, perimeter defenses, conferencing services, web content filters and anti-virus faculties. To date, no staff member has requested remote working on a permanent or hybrid-basis, however, the Commission conducted an internal anonymous survey in May 2021 which indicated a level of interest in some form of hybrid working.
