Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that the next government in the country could encourage people to work from home in the long term by offering special tax incentives, Irish Times reported on May 26.

The Varadkar government said that future administrations would likely consider the plan to develop incentives over the long term to enable people to work remotely, aiding efforts to social distance in the country.

A Government spokesman said that: “Current Government policy is to encourage firms to allow more home-working and also more flexible working. It could, therefore, make sense for the next government to look at ways of encouraging more home-working in the long run. And the proposal for tax incentives, suggested by the NBRU (National Bus and Rail Union), is certainly worth considering.”

Mr Varadkar said: “suggestions on staggering primary school, secondary school and college start times has merit and requires further consideration as do income tax incentives to encourage more people to work from home”.

Ireland is leading the way in progressive working practices, with internet giants including Twitter and Facebook already trialling temporary remote working projects in the country, as previously reported.

Other organisations operating from rural remote locations include Grow Remote Ireland and other organisations looking to build a growing community of remote workers across the country.