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The 2001 annual report of the e-Work Action Forum remarked that the lack of national statistics on e-working made it difficult to monitor the uptake and incidence of e-work. However, the Forum said it would have a better idea about the amount and type of people who are working from home due to the Central Statistics Office agreeing to include questions relating to e-working in its autumn Quarterly National Household Survey.
The Forum's report did include the results of a survey carried out in October 2001 and released in November 2001. The survey found that between 2000 and 2001, the proportion of Irish businesses with one or more employees e-working increased from 10 percent to 12 percent. In addition, the number of employees in such companies who e-work increased over the year from 4.5 employees to an average of six employees.
According to the survey, the vast majority (93 percent) of businesses who facilitate e-work rated the experience as "very or fairly" successful with one-third believing that e-working staff are more productive than their non e-working colleagues.
The report, which was published on Thursday, details the activities and achievements of the e-Work Action Forum. The Forum was established in November 1999 by the Minster for Science, Technology and Commerce, Noel Treacy, TD, with the remit of encouraging the development of an e-working environment in Ireland and to monitor this progress.
Among these achievements were the conclusion of negotiations with the Revenue Commissioners, which saw the body clarify the tax position in relation to e-working. The Forum also said that it had begun investigating options for the provision of nationwide e-work training courses and appropriate certification.
In addition, the report said that Enterprise Ireland's eWork Business Awareness Campaign, which was intended to point out the business advantages of e-working to companies, actually resulted in most inquiries coming from individuals.
The EUR298,388 publicity campaign led to approximately 600 enquiries, according to the report, with 60 percent of them coming from people looking for e-work opportunities. Nearly 20 percent of the enquiries came from distribution trades/services, followed by just over ten percent from businesses/technical consultants, and six percent from manufacturers.
Minister Treacy said in a statement he was encouraged by the "very real progress" that had been achieved by the Forum in creating "an improved environment for e-work".
The report is available on-line at the Department of Enterprise's Web site.
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