Before the pandemic, Mary Ennis' working day started early. The alarm would wake her from her slumber at 5.30am and within 15 minutes she was up and out the door, into the car and on the road.
That was because her commute from her home in Co Kildare to her job in a bank in Dublin city could take up to two hours, one way.
Mary's employer was very accommodating, allowing her to come in early and leave early, in an effort to avoid wasting up to four hours a day every day stuck in traffic. "I'd be at the office by 6.30am, and start work about 6.45am.
And, in the evening, I'd leave about 3pm or 3.15pm," she said. "Now usually the morning was fine traffic-wise, but in the evening, you were lucky with an hour, an hour and a half without any