Mr. Fintan O'Brien:

I will answer a few of the questions that were posed. We are well on the way to the target of onboarding 400 hubs over the lifetime of the policy. The process started with finding out where they were in the first place. That mapping process was not as easy as it might sound, to be quite honest. There is a huge benefit to it, however. I have seen that trying to locate a hub abroad can be very difficult compared with how simple it is here due to that mapping process. The WDC is managing a process for us in the context of that onboarding. Sometimes it can take a little bit longer than we might like, but there is an element of ensuring that coherence of quality and making sure that the requirements to be on the network are met. There may be some out there who have been invited who may have been somewhat reticent at the start and wanted to see proof of the concept working. We have managed to convince a lot more of them at this stage that this has been something of benefit to hub owners and should see an uptick in that. Elements of that also relate to the issue of raising awareness. We have been working with the WDC on a number of awareness-raising campaigns and the promotional vouchers so it is a priority for us to head towards that target as quickly as possible.

On the digital innovation projects, we do not have a commitment for this in our budget for next year other than to say on the islands' side that we have a commitment to roll out a detailed implementation plan, DIP, for islands next year. Having said that, we will be going into the start of the year with a review of the national broadband plan locations, so that will have an impact there.

Regarding the example given of the programme with Microsoft and the migrant workers, that is exactly what we are thinking at the moment for the future of the hubs and BCPs. We agree that there will be a requirement for the hubs and BCPs to be able to pivot to new challenges and opportunities. At the moment, we are putting that new strategy in place for the sustainable development of hubs and BCPs and part of that involves looking for new services, new cross-Government approaches, and looking for pilots that have worked elsewhere. As part of that process, that is certainly something that would interest us and we will be looking for those types of new services. One of things we are doing linked to that on the BCPs, is to provide a new platform for them so that when these services are rolling out, there is a better platform for booking payments, promotion, and creating that community. Certainly, that is something that is in line with our thinking on the future of the sector.