Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. This issue deeply interests all of us in terms of how we can grow enterprise and enhance social inclusion for those of us who live in rural Ireland. The Minister of State has been on this side of the table advocating for rural Ireland and I know he is passionate about it. This is an interesting engagement. For once, we are starting to think outside the box, rather than going through the traditional streams of how we will get the networks into rural Ireland in regard to broadband, infrastructure and the various aspects of wireless technology, for example, the new initiatives from SIRO and the ESB, which are looking at ways other than the hard fibre that has traditionally delivered broadband in urban areas. That is all happening in the background but, in the meantime, it is refreshing to hear Ms Keogh outline how she and her colleagues are thinking outside the box, utilising existing infrastructure and getting ahead of the game in engaging with employers, Departments, this committee, agencies and others. I commend her and her colleagues for that.

It should not stop there. Ms Keogh in her presentation mentioned the power of community and quality of life, which are the traditional strengths of rural Ireland. We need to capture those, as she said, and direct them in a way that creates jobs and allows people to live at home, earn an income and contribute to their local communities. That is what I am getting from her, in an nutshell.

I have a few questions. She mentioned enablers and this committee needs to help in identifying enablers to meet Grow Remote's aspirations and make them work. She referred to access to regional hubs and to commissioning a study to identify further opportunities. I ask her to elaborate on that, distil it down and tell us what specific opportunities she has in mind. Should we bring specific employers before a committee such as this or try to assist Grow Remote in engaging them through its chapters? There are the SMEs, ISME, Retail Ireland and all of the representative agencies and the larger brands and companies which mentioned. Ms Keogh might identify some of the enablers we could assist in identifying.

I want to direct a question to the Minister of State, as I recognise the role he can play in being the champion for initiatives like this across Government. As we know, the Government can often work in silos within individual Departments and it is very hard to get that recognition of how cross-cutting initiatives like this can work. I refer, in particular, to the delivery of broadband and access to digital, which is of primary importance, and the Minister of State and his colleagues are doing their best to enhance that. We need to engage the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and encourage its officials and representatives to engage with us to look at how we can assist organisations such as Grow Remote. There is significant potential if this is managed in a co-ordinated way, and I am excited to hear so much work is going on behind the scenes. We need to see more of that.

We could consider whether we should invite representatives of other agencies or Departments or employer representatives to see how we can channel them into thinking about Grow Remote and how we can improve the prospects for job creation in rural Ireland. The committee would be doing a job in that regard.

I thank the witnesses for the presentation and I look forward to their responses.