Dr. Stjohn O'Connor:

I do 100%. The Senator is correct. I refer the committee to the National University of Ireland, Galway,-Western Development Commission research on remote working which found the top challenge is loneliness and isolation. This is one of the few times I have been out of my children's playroom because that is where I am working remotely. I fully understand the Senator's point that remote working in hubs addresses the issue. The Department is of the view that a blended approach is required. It may be that a person will work at home one day per week, in the office two days per week or in a remote hub two days a week. Covid has taught us that we need a more nuanced solution. The idea of bringing everybody back to the office is, I am sure everybody realises, somewhat unrealistic. If we move to only working from home we will have challenges. There are companies who are entirely based on their staff working from home and they manage that by providing toolkits and so on. In terms of my team, it does not suit one of my team to work at home because he has children but it would suit him to work remotely in a hub and that would address the loneliness issue.

Urban McMahon is the broadband officer in Clare. He is also responsible for building the DigiClare hubs. DigiClare hubs are really interesting in that Mr. McMahon and Clare County Council are advanced in their thinking. The hubs provide hot-desk facilities at a cost of €10 per day.