Pushing through legislation to guarantee a request for remote working will be 'detrimental' to investment here, one expert has said.

Peter Cosgrave, Managing Director at Futurewise, was speaking after signals of a major overhaul of the Government's proposed law.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said on Wednesday the legislation had fallen behind, and changes were planned to it.

Mr Cosgrave told Newstalk Breakfast a legal right may not be the way to go.

"I'm a big believer in remote and flexible work; I think it's a very good idea - but at the same time, I don't think an employer has to be legislated to give it," he said.

"It should be up to the right of any employer that if they want you to come into the office, they should.

"You have every right not to work for that employer if you want, but I think we're becoming too complicated if we start putting legislation in place for something which is really a contractual thing between an employer and an employee."

He said offering people a 'right' to request to work from home is overstepping.

'Detrimental'

He also believes the change could be "detrimental" to foreign companies looking to set up here.

"We're so attractive from an education point of view, from a growth point of view and also from the fact that we don't have a lot of bureaucracy and we don't meddle a lot," he said.

"It's easy for companies, like American companies especially, to come in here and set up.

"I think that's one thing that would be a bit detrimental to that."

'Challenging an employer'

Mr Cosgrave said, while many workers may feel they are more productive working remotely, there are other considerations.

"What people don't appreciate is there's a lot of things that happen in organisations that happen as a collective," he said.

"If you think of the first five years of your working life, most of your learning came from somebody sitting beside you telling you what to do or passing by - or you listened in to someone else's call or you met someone from a different department.

"All that gets lost if you're working remotely - so absolutely you can work very productively on your own, but it doesn't work very well as a collective."

He said he believes the current set-up is "changing and challenging an employer about what they can do".