Locations along Ireland’s wild Atlantic coast have been deemed the best spots for remote working according to a number of work-life factors.
The best locations in Ireland to work remotely or from home are Sligo, Galway, Ballina and Killarney.
The four locations from the west coast were chosen as part of a survey by deals comparison company Switcher. As part of its research, Switcher looked at factors which may have influenced people’s quality of life while working from home including average property prices, crime rates and access to 5G broadband.
It also calculated the number of GPs, cafés, restaurants and top-rated schools per 1,000 people. All the data was gathered during July 2021 of this year, and Sligo came out as both the best place to work from home and the best place to work from home with a family.
According to Switcher, the town has relatively affordable property prices, excellent GP access and plenty of good schools nearby.
The city of Galway was revealed to be the best place to work from home for foodies, while Ballina in Co Mayo came in third due to its low property prices.
The Louth town of Dundalk rounded out the top five.
The Dublin outpost of Skerries was chosen as the safest place from which to work from home, with Leixlip, Carrigaline, Celbridge and Cobh also earmarked as safe places with low crime rates.
Bottom of the list for working from home were Ratoath, Portmarnock, Rush, Tramore and Maynooth.
“This past year has completely changed everything we knew and were used to in our working lives,” said Eoin Clark, managing director of Switcher. “Many of us have been given a taste of working from home and what life could be like without the ties of an office. It’s no surprise that many people have had a taste of freedom and now dream of being able to ditch the office long term.”
Clark noted the flexibility remote working offers to “do your job from wherever you please”.
“All you need is a good internet connection and somewhere to open [the] laptop. Not only does this offer a much better work-life balance, but it can save you money too by not having to live in areas with high property prices just to work. It can also cut the commute, saving you time and money every day,” he concluded.
Early on in the pandemic, Ireland had one of the highest rates of employees working from home. That was according to labour market think tank Eurofound, which surveyed people working from home across Europe in April 2020 and again in July 2020.
More recently, a remote working survey carried out by NUI Galway’s Whitaker Institute in collaboration with the Western Development Commission found that the number of Irish people working remotely at the end of April 2021 fell by more than 10pc from the same time last year.
The number of respondents working fully remotely decreased from 87pc in April 2020 to 75pc at the end of April 2021, and there was more of a mix of on-site and remote working in the latest survey.
That survey also found that 9pc of people had relocated to the west, south-west and border regions, while 24pc of respondents said they would consider relocating based on their experience of remote working since Covid-19.
Infographic: Switcher
