For Tracy Keogh – co-founder and chair of Grow Remote – AIB’s decision to row back on earlier hybrid commitments is not an isolated incident. Rather, it is a familiar pattern that has been occurring since Grow Remote’s formation as a grassroots organisation back in 2018.
Speaking on Today with Claire Byrne on 1st August 2025, Tracy argued that Ireland needs to look beyond these individual company decisions and must develop a more strategic, nationwide approach to harnessing the potential of remote employment.
A National Opportunity: Tapping into the Global Remote Job Market
The real focus for Ireland should be on setting a national target to capture a share of the vast global remote job market. There are approximately 100,000 remote jobs open across the European Union every single month.
If Ireland were to set a target to win even a small percentage of these roles, the economic benefits would be substantial.
• Winning just 5% of these jobs – that’s 5,000 roles – could generate €48 million in taxpayer income annually at a conservative average salary of €60,000 (significantly higher than the average €42,000 in Ireland’s lowest-salaried counties).
• In a recession scenario, these jobs could provide even greater resilience, contributing an estimated €118 million to the taxpayer. Relying solely on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) leaves regional towns vulnerable if companies pull out, whereas remote jobs offer a way to mitigate this risk.
• A Grow Remote report has found that if Ireland had transitioned just one-third of the 350,000 potentially remote Irish jobs to fully remote roles, it could have created an additional 100,000 remote jobs – boosting local economies by an estimated €150 million, increasing community engagement, and significantly reducing CO2 emissions.
In the interview, Tracy also pointed out that many of these valuable remote roles were “hidden”. Remote-first companies often advertise directly on their own career pages or professional networks like LinkedIn, rather than on traditional job boards such as IrishJobs.ie. For instance, the banking app Revolut has announced 200 remote jobs recently that were available across Europe – not just Ireland – demonstrating the need for a national target to land these jobs here.
Challenging Groupthink on “Return to Office”
Some CEOs pushing for a return to the office have been influenced by a “groupthink” mentality among their peers – rather than by actual productivity figures.
Graham Harron, Grow Remote’s Data & Impact Lead, has highlighted that the narrative suggesting the decline of remote work often relies on limited data sources and does not fully capture the thriving broader remote job market.
While acknowledging that remote employment might not be suitable for every company, Tracy’s core argument was that Ireland needed a solutions-oriented approach to actively attract and secure the existing remote jobs.
Productivity, Trust, and Intentionality in Remote Work
A common concern among employers can relate to employee productivity and accountability in remote settings. Grow Remote strongly advocates for a model of “trust, not track”, arguing against the use of invasive “spyware”.
In Tracy’s interview on RTÉ, she explained that successful remote companies, including multi-million euro organisations, achieved high revenue by focusing on clear outputs and targets, rather than monitoring employees’ daily activities. Aiden O’Shea, co-founder of Autonomy, a fully remote company with 400 staff, confirmed that productivity was highly measurable through their platform in a recent Newstalk article.
Keogh emphasised that successful remote work required “intentional and deliberate” investment in skills, training, and a significant cultural transformation within organizations, nothing that Grow Remote operates Europe’s largest training programme for remote work, supporting employers in properly embedding remote practices.
Hybrid vs. Fully Remote
Grow Remote has observed that while both fully remote and fully in-office models had their own challenges, hybrid models often proved more difficult to implement effectively. The recommendation was for hybrid companies to adopt a “remote-first” culture, ensuring equal engagement for all, regardless of physical location. Grow Remote’s analysis of Gallup’s 2025 report indicated that fully remote employees reported the highest engagement levels, while hybrid workers experienced the highest life satisfaction.
Tracy underscored that the debate extended beyond individual businesses to “Ireland Inc.”. By focusing on a national strategy to attract these existing remote jobs, Ireland could not only boost its economy but also ensure that valuable job opportunities were accessible across the country, fostering community engagement and reducing CO2 emissions.
The true challenge is not the viability of remote employment itself, but rather a “lack of ambition” to capitalise on the opportunities it presents.
You can listen back to Tracy’s interview on Today with Claire Byrne here.