Ireland has no target for remote work. That means we don’t actively win remote jobs in, we don’t have dedicated supports for Irish remote employers, and we don’t focus the way we do with FDI or indigenous exporters on consistently building out the ecosystem and driving the numbers up.

There are over 100,000 remote jobs advertised monthly across Europe. These jobs will land somewhere. No one is systematically helping Ireland win them.

What a target does:

It treats fully remote employers with the same rigour as office-based FDI and indigenous enterprise. That means proactive employer engagement, a value proposition (English-speaking talent, EU timezone, strong education system), and a package of supports tailored to what remote employers actually need: talent channels, employer of record guidance, hub access, equipment logistics, compliance support, remote-specific service providers.

It creates counting and reporting. For the first time, Ireland would have a mechanism to count remote jobs that land here. That creates accountability, enables political credit, and lets us go back to the jobs that landed and ask: what made that happen? What can we do to replicate it? We know, for instance, that if we could support more than 10 employees from one employer, they would most likely set up a limited entity here, cutting employer of record costs. That takes a concerted effort, the same way we back and drive IDA job announcements.

Why not legislation?

Forcing reluctant employers into remote doesn’t grow the sector. It creates resistance. The Right to Request faces implementation challenges. Strengthening it regulates existing arrangements. It doesn’t win new jobs. It doesn’t support the employers already hiring remotely. It doesn’t build the ecosystem.

A target focuses on what works and amplifies it. It brings remote employment together, creates official data and structures, and engages with willing employers. That has a halo effect. Companies who are uncertain respond best to seeing it work. When remote employment is visible, structured, and successful, the undecided come along.

Parts of the infrastructure are already there: National Broadband Plan, Connected Hubs, training programmes through LOETB and SOLAS. What’s missing is the mechanism to connect it, the target to unify it, and the rigour to drive it.

They do, in parts. Our founding board included the site leads for Wayfair, Shopify, and eBay, some of Ireland’s largest remote employers brought here by IDA. Enterprise Ireland backed us early. IDA has pioneered ring-fenced remote approaches.

But both agencies work within EU incentive programmes that block remote. Regional Aid Guidelines allow support for job creation only where the employer has a physical establishment. Remote jobs don’t qualify. And both agencies aim to drive region-specific investment, which is central to Ireland’s job creation model but doesn’t map onto locationless employment.

The issue isn’t capability. It’s mandate. Without a target, without dedicated supports for remote, it’s always on the back foot. Remote employment needs the same focus, the same rigour, and the same accountability that office-based job creation has always had.

We’re engaging directly with employers across three situations:

International remote employers who can hire anywhere: what would incentivise you to hire in Ireland specifically?

Irish employers with remote roles going to other jurisdictions: what would encourage you to ring-fence those jobs into the Irish tax base?

Employers considering remote but uncommitted: what specific supports would help you shift your culture or commit to a number of remote roles?

Their answers shape what we’re asking government to put in place. The Letters of Intent capture employer commitment contingent on those supports, giving government evidence of demand and a clear return on investment.

We’ve worked on this every day since 2018. We set up the Remote Work Alliance, ran Ireland’s largest remote training programmes, built a community of 30,000 members across 150 local chapters, and hosted over 850 events. We’ve worked with researchers including Global Workplace Analytics and the London School of Economics.

All of this has informed our outlook: focus on what works, support willing employers, and build visible success that pulls the rest of the market along.