Ireland has opened its first national survey of remote and hybrid workers, and the findings will feed government policy

The Western Development Commission, working with Atlantic Technological University, opened Ireland’s first national survey of remote and hybrid workers on 20 October 2026. It asks how saved commuting time is actually spent, and whether remote work has changed where people choose to live. The findings are intended to feed into government policy on the future of work.

The Commission announced the survey on 19 October and is calling for responses from anyone working remotely or in a hybrid arrangement in Ireland.

Why this matters

Policy on remote work is usually made from employer data. Surveys of HR departments, of office occupancy, of what companies say their arrangements are. A national survey that asks the workers themselves what they do with the time and whether it moved them is a different instrument, and the answers tend to differ.

The relocation question is the one to watch. Ireland has spent several years funding regional hubs and remote work infrastructure on the premise that remote work redistributes population away from Dublin. Whether it actually has, at what scale, and whether those people stayed, has not been measured nationally before.

Remote Work Europe has an interest in the method as much as the result. Having just run our own survey of 407 freelancers in Spain, we would say this: a self-selected survey describes the people who answer it, and anyone active enough in remote work to find and complete a survey about remote work is not a random sample of remote workers. That is a limit on what the findings can support, not a reason to skip it. If you work remotely in Ireland, the people who answer are the people who will be described.

What to watch

When the survey closes and when the Commission reports. Findings that feed policy are worth reading before the policy arrives rather than after.