Dr. Stjohn O'Connor:

That is a good question. In the case of BCPs, it is the BCP site owner. We provided extensive funding this year and we are likely to provide funding through the €5 million fund for the upgrade of those facilities. It depends on what is required. In terms of what we are trying to do with the national hub network, we are trying to have a minimum standard in each of the hubs. The idea is that the expectations of customers using the hubs will be met at each of the levels. If one is using a community hub, one should expect X, Y and Z. We will roll out programmes to support the upgrade of facilities to get them to that point. It is not just about facilities; it will also be about the programme and the level of support one will receive. There is always the infrastructure piece. In many cases, that is the easy piece to do. The more challenging part is to ensure that those using a community hub should be able to expect to contact somebody within a certain number of hours and have certain supports available if they wish to progress their business to the next level. We will be aiming to do something similar for BCPs. We expect to be able to bring them up to a certain standard.

The BCPs are a diverse range of facilities, which is acceptable because they are there to do different things. One could have a BCP hub, the primary goal of which is education. We know that several BCPs will be used for educational purposes for the time being and may then change to something else. For many BCPs, it will be important to have that ability to flex between different services. They may have a separate room. One of the things we are keen to support is increasing the number of remote working and connected facilities that are available. If there is a spare room, it could be set up as a remote working facility. There would then be the capability to do other things in other rooms. That is something we are very keen to support. I could pick ten BCPs, all of which are completely different. We are very conscious that the beneficiaries are the communities and it is about what the community needs. In terms of what we are seeking to do next year, we will run out programmes relating to e-health, the cultural side and remote working, but also to education and skills. Not all BCPs will take up everything. Some of them will go after the cultural aspect, others will go after remote working and others will do a combination of both. In time, we hope to build that up such that they will be delivering multiple solutions. We need to be careful to remember that it is about what the community needs the BCP to do. As such, we will try to facilitate each BCP to become what the community needs it to be.