Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will try my best and if I miss any, come back to me. I thank members for those questions. Of course, as rural Deputies we are all passionate about remote working. It is the game changer for which rural Ireland has waited for a long time. I do not want to let it slip away. Above all things, I want to see it supported, I want to see it working, and I want to see people enjoying a better quality of life in their local communities. For too long, we have educated young people and Dublin was only place they could get a job. Now that is changing. They can get a job in their own community and they can be part of that community. This will revitalise the towns, villages, communities and parishes throughout the country.

On the fund to help remote working hubs, we have been doing a lot of work with local authorities through the rural regeneration development fund and the town and village renewal scheme. They identify the buildings, we help and support them in renovating them and in converting them into remote working hubs and multipurpose use buildings, which adds another level of vibrancy to these premises.

The €5 million fund is part of the town and village renewal scheme specifically targeted at providing support to kit out remote working hubs. I was very clear that this would apply to public sector hubs and to private sector-owned hubs because we want them in the market too. A good number of them are being developed in different towns and villages. They see this as an opportunity. That fund is there now. It is currently open. I would encourage anybody who has a remote working hub that needs some adaptations to put an application into that fund.

The Chairman spoke of making sure there are no barriers to remote working and he is absolutely right. I have been doing a good bit of work with Grow Remote. Perhaps some of the members will be familiar with Ms Tracy Keogh. Tracy started Remote Grow and it is now a social enterprise that we support. It is about helping employers to understand the benefits of remote working. It is helping them to make the move. Some employers are, obviously, concerned that it may have unintended consequences for them. We must help them to understand the benefits, to bridge that gap between them and their employees, and to give them the chance to try it and work it out.

It is a win-win for everybody. There are some jobs where remote work is not possible, which must be acknowledged. There are many ways in which it can be facilitated. When I speak about remote working, it is about giving people choice rather than telling them they must work here or there. It is about allowing people choice with a hub network. I can perhaps see a time where people on their holidays might need to spend a few days at work. They could look up on the app where to get a space to work for a morning or afternoon before continuing their trip around the Wild Atlantic Way. That is what we might call blended work or a blended lifestyle. I do not want to get the saying backwards but it is about working to live, as opposed to living to work. It is important and Covid-19 has taught us a lesson in that regard.

There is a 20% target for remote working in the public service as a minimum. There is much work ongoing in that respect. I want to continue to ensure this can happen. In my Department of Rural and Community Development, we are talking about 98% of people continuing to work remotely and they do so very successfully. There may be times when people need to come into the office for a day or two but it will be a blend. The Department of Social Protection is very much a customer-facing Department with 6,500 staff and 50% of them continue to work remotely. We have managed to roll out an unbelievable amount of services and payments over the past year and a half. Credit is due to them. I cannot give figures for the Department of Justice but I know from being in the building that much remote working is taking place there as well. It is something we want to continue by keeping that momentum. We do not want it lost.

I take the Deputy's point about concerns about the city centre but I am not prepared to see the communities, towns and villages across the country being sacrificed for any one part of the country. This is about balanced regional development, which is what we want. There is no reason we cannot look at centre of city living as well. There are opportunities there too, and we all saw what happened with the lockdown. The offices emptied and the city centres were hollowed out. People bring vitality to city centres the same as they do with town centres. It is something we should consider.

I should reply on the LEADER question. The distribution of €65 million of the €70 million transition programme to the local action groups, LAGs, was announced in April. Of the remaining €5 million, €3 million is being allocated to support co-operation projects and €2 million has been set aside to support strategy development for the next LEADER programme. There is €20 million from the EU recovery investment, at 100%, and the €50 million is 68% EU-funded, I believe. I will confirm that. The rate of aid for private enterprise has been increased from 50% to 75%. I hope I have answered all the questions.