Flexible Work Practices

Tuesday, 7 October 2025

Questions (2)

Emer Currie

Question:

2. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Taoiseach if public sector employers, colleges and public bodies have moved to 20% home and remote working as per the Making Remote Work strategy. [52681/25]

View answer

Written answers

Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach

The exact information requested by the Deputy is not available.

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is the official source of labour market estimates for the State. The most recent LFS figures available are for Q2 2025.

The LFS does not contain a breakdown of public sector vs private sector employment. NACE sections O - Public Administration and Defence, P – Education and Q - Human Health and Social Work Activities include persons employed in the public sector. It should be noted that Sections P and Q also include private sector employment.

The LFS contains a question asking the extent that people work from home. Those who work more than half the time from home are coded ‘Mainly works from home’, those who work more than one hour per week, but less than half the time from home are coded ‘Sometimes works from home’. The aggregate of these two codes is ‘At least some work from home’. The survey does not ask whether working from home is possible based on the nature of their work.

Table 1 contains estimates for the numbers of people in employment by selected NACE economic sector and extent of working from home.

In Q2 2025, 780,100 people were employed in NACE sections O - Public Administration and Defence, P – Education and Q - Human Health and Social Work Activities. Of these, 256,400 undertook at least some of their work from home - 101,100 mainly worked from home and 155,300 sometimes worked from home.

Table 1 Persons in employment (ILO) by economic sector and extent of working from home, 000s

NACE economic sector	Extent of working from home	Q2 2021	Q2 2022	Q2 2023	Q2 2024	Q2 2025
	Mainly works at home	67.5	50.4	38.7	43.8	37.8
	Sometimes works at home	10.8	19.9	35.6	37.9	39.4
	At least some work from home	78.3	70.3	74.3	81.7	77.2
	Never works at home	52.6	59.6	70.0	70.1	68.6
	Not stated	*	*	*	*	*
Section O Public Administration and Defence; Compulsory Social Security	All persons	131.1	130.2	144.7	152.1	146.3
	Mainly works at home	73.3	43.6	33.3	32.1	30.8
	Sometimes works at home	43.2	49.0	53.9	60.7	72.7
	At least some work from home	116.5	92.6	87.2	92.8	103.5
	Never works at home	99.0	127.4	132.7	139.7	138.1
	Not stated	*	*	*	*	*
Section P Education	All persons	216.4	220.7	221.4	233.2	242.7
	Mainly works at home	40.9	30.7	23.9	28.1	32.5
	Sometimes works at home	23.7	34.1	36.8	42.9	43.3
	At least some work from home	64.6	64.8	60.7	71.0	75.8
	Never works at home	245.7	274.7	296.8	305.2	314.5
	Not stated	*	*	*	*	*
Section Q Human Health and Social Work Activities	All persons	312.2	340.3	358.0	376.6	391.1
	Mainly works at home	181.8	124.8	95.8	104.0	101.1
	Sometimes works at home	77.7	103.1	126.3	141.5	155.3
	At least some work from home	259.5	227.9	222.1	245.5	256.4
	Never works at home	397.3	461.7	499.5	514.9	521.2
	Not stated	*	*	*	*	*
Sections O, P and Q	All persons	659.7	691.2	724.1	761.9	780.1
	Mainly works at home	774.3	643.0	547.6	553.6	555.5
	Sometimes works at home	178.4	279.4	360.5	399.3	457.6
	At least some work from home	952.7	922.4	908.1	952.9	1013.1
	Never works at home	1419.0	1672.6	1767.9	1794.1	1795.6
	Not stated	[10.5]	[6.3]	[6.8]	[7.2]	9.3
All persons	All persons	2382.2	2601.2	2682.7	2754.2	2818.1

Source: Labour Force Survey, Central Statistics Office.

Data may be subject to sampling or other survey errors, which are greater in respect of smaller values or estimates of change.

Estimates for number of persons, where there are less than 30 persons in a cell, are too small to be considered reliable. These estimates are presented with an asterisk (*) in the relevant tables. Where there are 30-49 persons in a cell, estimates are considered to have a wider margin of error and should be treated with caution. These cells are presented with parentheses []. In the case of rates, these limits apply to the denominator used in generating the rate. In the case of annual changes, both the current year and the preceding year are taken into account when deciding whether the estimate should be suppressed or flagged as having a wider margin of error.

Data may be subject to future revision.

Reference period: q2 Apr-Jun.