Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will take that. I thank the Deputy for the question. There are undoubtedly opportunities for the regions in the post-Covid world that we are all really looking forward to. Many of the changes that have occurred in the past nine or ten months have been forced upon us, and we would not be having this engagement in this format were it not for Covid-19. The truth is that many people have now realised they do not necessarily need to be at their normal place of work five days a week. If that enables more people to spend time in their local communities, that offers a lot of opportunity and potential. I think the truth is that we will be looking at a hybrid. I think it will take us a while to figure out the appropriate balance. We also need to have strong cities. That is important for our country as well.

We are working under the umbrella of an overall national planning framework, as the Deputy will be aware, which is to be reviewed in the coming years. That is the overarching strategy for Project Ireland 2040, with the NDP sitting alongside the national planning framework. Certainly, from the point of view of the work ongoing in my Department, I anticipate that the issue of remote working and the opportunities it presents for towns and villages across regional Ireland will feature strongly as part of the review of the NDP. The Deputy will have already seen a number of different Departments invest public money in different initiatives to facilitate people working in their local communities: in remote working hubs, co-working spaces and so on. There are a whole range of programmes in that regard. I think we will see much more of that but it will be a hybrid. I do not think that into the future the current position that pertains during the crisis will be the permanent situation. It will move back to probably a more balanced combination, which I think would suit an awful lot of people and which presents opportunities for rural Ireland for sure.