Ireland 'lagging' on flexible working

Tax breaks should be given to companies that stagger their working hours outside the rush hour, a transport expert has said.

Peter Cochrane, former chief technology officer at British Telecom, said Ireland was suffering from a lack of forward planning which was contributing to needless congestion at rush hour.

Speaking at the annual Engineers Ireland Conference in Croke Park, Mr Cochrane said Ireland was lagging badly behind other European countries in the provision of flexible working hours, broadband from home and home working.

This was hurting the productivity of major companies here, he said.

He pointed out that 25 per cent of British employees worked from home on a regular basis, but less than 1 per cent did so in Ireland.

He also called for an alignment of timetables across all modes of public transport and better communications to warn motorists of congestion.

Liam Connellan, the chairman of Veolia Transport Ireland, the company which runs the Luas, said urban commuters would switch en masse to public transport if they were guaranteed a service every four minutes at peak hours.

He said there was a need in every urban area for a co-ordinator to ensure that all public transport networks were integrated along the lines of the proposed Dublin Transportation Authority.

He also recommended the setting up of 15 urban centres across Ireland to ensure that no commuter had to travel more than 65 kilometres a day to work. Each centre would have an enhanced public transport network.

Ireland is a prime example of a country where economic efficiency and environmental sustainability can be compatible, Minister for the Environment Dick Roche told the conference.

The Government has been heavily criticised in the past for failing to meet the Kyoto targets of keeping greenhouse gas emissions to 13 per cent above the levels they were in 1990.

However, Mr Roche said the economy had grown by 150 per cent in the same period.

"We've long taken the view that economic efficiency and environmental sustainability are not incompatible. We've proven that as a nation," he told delegates.

"If you are looking for an examplar of a country that can grow dramatically and at the same time develop environmental sustainability, we're as good an examplar as you'll find."

Bioverda chief executive John Mullins told the conference that meeting targets to have 15 per cent of all energy generated from renewable sources by 2010 would be a major struggle.

He said there was a need for a national bioenergy resource centre to develop alternative technologies such as algae biofuel. It could provide 8,000 gallons of biodiesel per acre.