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

Blaas. I will recommend that the bread be brought in for the committee members. It would help them for the day. It was very nice. I thank the Deputy.

Regarding our spending on office premises, our staff in the Department of Rural and Community Development have embraced remote working. Over 90% of staff are able to work remotely and worked effectively during the Covid pandemic. Half of our staff are in Ballina. We have managed to do that effectively and we will continue to promote that and to find the balance between remote working and working in hubs. I am a big supporter of remote working hubs. It gives the security of a workspace. People are able to go in and meet colleagues. They have a starting time and a finishing time. When people are sitting at the kitchen table, their work lives can easily blend and take away from their home lives. It is important that we have work-life balance.

Regarding broadband, we have been promoting the national hub network. We have developed a strategy and funded the Western Development Commission to roll out the connected hubs network. We are getting more and more remote working space and more employers and workers are coming on board with us. That is working well. As the Deputy knows, the Government is committed to the roll-out of the national broadband plan. It is essential. It allows us to change the way we live and work in rural Ireland. On top of that, we have the broadband connection points. We have invested right across the country in helping communities where there is a poor broadband connection. We have been able to get high-speed broadband into their community halls. We have given them funding to upgrade facilities to facilitate people to work from home. As we embrace this further, we will have e-health and e-learning. A bright future is ahead but we must have connectivity to enable us to be part of it.

Regarding the town centre first capacity building, we have allocated this €100,000 to these towns to help them to come together with a co-ordinated plan. We want to encourage people to come back and live in the town centre. People bring that vitality and energy back into our towns. It applies to cities as well, not just the towns. We saw during the lockdown that there were very few people around the centre of the city here in Dublin. We want to encourage people to come back in, so they can walk to school and to work. That is very much what we are about. We have to incentivise people to do that.

I work very closely with the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke; the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien; and the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan. We were all working very closely together on the town centre approach. The €100,000 is to help these towns have a strategic plan. As the Deputy knows, in most towns there can be a number of different committees that all have different ideas and it is putting all of that energy together. That is what the €100,000 is for. This is only the first phase of it.

The way I see the outdoor recreation scheme is that in rural community development, we do the small schemes. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, does the big stuff in his Department. We complement each other well. We work very closely together and we all know there are synergies between us and between Fáilte Ireland, which helped to fund the outdoor recreation scheme as well. We have €4 million per annum and those discussions continue with Fáilte Ireland. Therefore, there is joined-up thinking in that regard.

We all know the wonderful amenities that we have. We have enhanced them considerably. During Covid, people were able to get out and about and there is a greater appreciation of what we have in this country. As the Deputy noted, I was down in Waterford, and St. Declan’s Way is an amazing facility to have. Indeed, I was in Tipperary on another day as well. They have fantastic walks along the river and they are connecting the towns. It is something that we can continue and we can continue to invest in. What we have at our own doorstep is amazing. We want to make sure that people are able to enjoy it to its maximum.

I believe I have covered all of the questions there.