The return of Ireland’s Public Servants to their offices has been paused with everyone ordered to work from home “unless it is absolutely necessary” following what has been described as a “rampant” resurgence of the COVID-19 virus.
The announcement was made by Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Micheál Martin during an address to the nation.
He said the measure was part of an effort to reduce social mixing and mobility.
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney said that where possible staff in his Department should work from home, noting there were some essential services, such as producing passports, that required workers to be on site.
“We need teams of people in the Passport Office,” Mr Coveney (pictured) said.
“There is no way of working from home because of the way in which the networks work, the security systems and so on,” he said.
Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Martin Heydon said the vast majority of people within his Department had worked from home during the pandemic and he expected that to continue.
Minister of State in the Department of Transport, Hildegarde Naughton said it was up to everybody to look at their own workplaces but she interacted with officials primarily via Zoom or WebEx meetings.
The Association of Higher and Civil Public Servants (AHCPS) estimated in a survey during the summer that about 80 per cent of staff within various Departments were either working remotely or were engaged in blended working.
General Secretary of the AHCPS, Ciaran Rohan said some public sector staff who’d been working from home had been returning for a number of days per week but he expected this would now be reversed.
The largest public sector union, Fórsa, said productivity has been “sustained or increased” during the pandemic, so management should be well placed to implement the new working-from-home advice.
Dublin, 20 November 2021
