European Telework Week: 4-11 November 1996
Country Report - Ireland
Author - Imogen Bertin, ETD National Coordinator, Ireland.
The only event which took place to mark ETW96 in Ireland was the Fourth
Irish Teleworking Conference, held on Friday 8 November in the plush surroundings
of the conference centre at the European Foundation for Living and Working
Conditions near Dublin. The European Foundation is involved in telework
research and provided its conference centre free of charge for the conference.
There were 147 delegates, including representatives from a number of large
corporates such as the Electricity Supply Board, Motorola and airports authority
Aer Rianta. Over 20 community development groups from Northern Ireland and
the Republic of Ireland were facilitated to attend the conference through
bursaries provided by Cooperation North, which itself receives funding through
the EU's Peace and Reconciliation programme for Northern Ireland.
Press coverage included articles on Radio na Gaeltachta news (Irish speaking
radio), on Celtic Vision (US cable channel reporting Irish interest pieces),
BBC Northern Ireland, Computerscope (Irish computer magazine), Communications
Today magazine, plus a special supplement printed by the Sunday
Business Post which also sponsored the conference with about 2500 ecus
worth of advertising. On the Monday following the conference, RTE 1, the
main terrestrial TV channel, featured a documentary in its rural development
magazine programme Ear to the Ground about the KITE telecottage
run by Sheila McCaffrey in Co. Fermanagh.
The foyer of the conference centre hosted exhibits by the European Foundation,
Telework Ireland, business publishing house Oaktree Press and value added
network provider Jupiter Communications, which resells Mercury services
in Ireland.
The morning session was devoted to telecommuting issues. Francis Kinsman
kicked off the proceedings with a short speech covering developments in
teleworking since he wrote his book The Telecommuters, and stressing the
opportunities for Irish people in America due to historical connections.
This view was strongly challenged by those working in the American market
who assured Francis that business was won on quality and price, not history.
Joe McCormack, formerly Marketing Manager with BT Northern Ireland and now
running his own consultancy company talked about effective use of PC and
telecoms technology to market teleworking, focussing on the need to understand
the mindset of what he described as "corporate thugs" who control
whether companies outsource work to teleworkers.
Tom Flanagan from Digital's Galway software operation gave a brilliantly
practical presentation from his own personal experience on how not to run
a telecommuting trial, describing problems such as being shut out of the
company's virtual private network due to fraud in other countries, being
provided with inadequate technical equipment initially, suffering from isolation,
having his telephone line cut off by Telecom Eireann due to local building
works and so on. However after a year Tom is still teleworking part time
and has become a firm believer in the practice.
Nicola Sheridan, who teleworks as a systems analyst from her home in Castlebar
Co. Mayo over 150 miles to VHI's headquarters in Dublin talked about the
ease with which she was able to make the transition five years ago when
she married and moved to the west, but warned delegates of the danger of
keeping a job and losing a career. Nicola felt that she got left out of
many social activities which would be on the noticeboard but not on email,
and that she lost the opportunity to lead teams because she could not directly
supervise juniors. However, she is delighted that she has been able to keep
her job, and had very positive reports of the effect on her family of being
able to work from home.
Elma Murphy from Hewlett Packard briefly described the company's support
for flexible working which was mainly derived from the need to retain skilled
staff, and showed a futuristic video from Hewlett Packard in the US showing
an earthquake with rescue workers using Star Trek type devices and databases
to keep in touch.
An ISDN video link to the Telework UK conference allowed Imogen Bertin of
Telework Ireland to pose questions from the conference floor to Stephen
Jupp of Home Office Partnership. It is ironic that at the time Tom Flanagan
was learning the hard way in Galway, Stephen was employed by Digital in
the UK to advise Tom's UK colleagues on how to get it right. Stephen talked
about the importance of involving high level management at an early stage
in telework trials, where to find cost benefit justifications, and how to
maintain contacts between teleworking colleagues.
The afternoon session looked at training issues for teleworkers. Ben Svengaard
described the TRBDI project where a third level educational facility in
Co. Tipperary is being designed from scratch as a distance learning campus.
Students will have their own laptops and be in email contact. There will
be 23 outreach centres in telecottage type settings and a split campus between
the towns of Thurles and Clonmel. Ben talked about the first of these centres,
which he runs with his wife Fiona in Newport, and which is self financing
within its first year of operation.
Helena Broderick, who represents the Open University in Ireland, talked
about the Open University's long history of working with distance learning
suitable for teleworkers, and explained that the OU feels strongly face
to face meetings with tutors are vital. The OU is opening a number of tutorial
centres all over Ireland as demand arises.
Denis Burke of state training agency FAS talked about some recent research
he has done on the difference between small company and large company attitudes
to teleworking and outsourcing. These showed small companies to be far more
open to the ideas.
Julie Ryan of the Irish Management Institute discussed the need for new
teleworkers to receive microenterprise support training, and outlined IMI's
course, which was written by two Telework Ireland members, Brian Goggin
and Pat Hough. IMI is now offering the course as distance learning over
the Internet using WEST technology. The first pilot operatinon of the course
will be open to Telework Ireland members at a discounted rate of IR3200.
Paddy Morgan from the FAS multimedia training centre in Cabra, Dublin talked
about the WEST system they are using to provide distance learning in multimedia
skills through a project support by the EU's Leonardo project.
Graham Lightfoot of East Clare Telecottage talked about the PERIPHERA and
CAFE MONDIALE projects being operated in rural East Clare to provide access
to IT and training in telemarketing/call centre skills.
Finally, Sheila McCaffrey received warm applause when she described the
outreach courses operated by her company KITE in Fermanagh to help women
re-enter the workforce. KITE travels to community centres to deliver personal
development training, and for those who then decide they would like IT training,
KITE buses out laptops and suitable equipment to provide the courses locally.
A number of these women then graduate to the two year teleworking vocational
qualification run at KITE, and 50% of these women are either employed at
KITE or full time with local businesses within a year of completing their
courses.
The Telework Ireland AGM was held and discussed the problems of sustainable
development for the association given that no national funding is available,
which prevents the association from utilising EU funding. A further development
day on 14 December to hold a workshop on how to involve corporates, the
National Council for the Status of Women, the Dublin City Manager and some
national politicians was decided upon. The AGM was also able to draw on
the experience of Chris O'Malley of DCU, formerly a BT senior manager and
also formerly an MEP.
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