Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I welcome Mr. Holden and apologise for being a little late. I missed the very start of his presentation. I have always been a sympathetic supporter of the Digital Hub. I think it was in the late 1990s or early 2000s that it was initially conceptualised by, if I recall correctly, Mr. Ahern. It seems that the Digital Hub has always had involvement with over 90 companies and has always had the same property deals in play. It has always had good relationships with the local community. The companies located there have been an important part of turning Dublin into a hub for start-up businesses. However, the world has moved on. We are now established as a venture capital and digital centre. A lot of the activity is located by the docks south of Samuel Beckett Bridge in the quarter called SOBO District, especially for smaller companies. Is it time for a rethink and recalibration? While this is not to criticise, what I heard today sounds very similar to how one might have described where the hub was at seven or eight years ago, when I had more of a connection with it. Perhaps that will change when the hub gets new office space and is able to expand. Is it time for a strategic rethink?

Over the years there consideration has been given to bringing the hub under Dublin City Council, while Enterprise Ireland and other bodies were considering other institutional structures. The Chairman asked about the governance structure. Is there blue-sky thinking about what comes next? The answer may be for the hub to stick to what it is doing because that is working. The hub is a valuable part of Dublin's and the national infrastructure. Having listened to Mr. Holden's presentation, my overriding feeling is that it is very similar to what has been there for the past ten years in both scale and nature.