Mr. William Parnell:

I thank Deputy Canney for his support and his comments. The first issue he mentioned was men's sheds. I mentioned in my introduction that, at the most recent meeting of our monitoring committee, we had a presentation from the chief executive of the Irish Men's Sheds Association, IMSA. It was a very interesting presentation. The association outlined its plans in terms of developing its network on a county basis. We are certainly aware of some of its funding needs. The Deputy mentioned that the association is trying to get its governance straightened out, not that I see any difficulties in that regard at the moment. We could have an ongoing engagement with the IMSA, and as it begins to develop its own plans for the future, we would certainly be open to talking to it. Many of the schemes we operate now are run on a competitive basis, but there may be funding opportunities for groups such as the IMSA nonetheless. It is a very important area to focus on. As the Deputy said, it is quite new and it is bringing about positive change right across Ireland, in both urban and rural areas.

The Deputy also mentioned the Atlantic economic corridor. This issue was spoken about when we attended a meeting of the Select Committee on Community and Rural Development at which the Minster was present a couple of weeks ago. The Atlantic economic corridor again shows the importance of a joined-up approach because it will require the input of so many different Departments and local authorities. The Deputy is quite correct to talk about the importance of infrastructure, but the funding that will be provided and the projects which will be funded are matters for the capital investment plan, which the Government will be publishing in the short term.

To say a word about the Atlantic economic corridor and the practical progress which has been made, as the Deputy would know, the concept of an Atlantic corridor has come and gone down through the years. When talking about the Atlantic economic corridor, there is sometimes a perception that it is no more than a road. I do not mean that in any kind of disparaging way, but it is much more than that. The particular proposal on which we are working emerged from the business sector and the chambers of commerce in February 2016. The American Chamber of Commerce also supported it. It is more about joining the economic hubs along that corridor or arc to create a balance with, and an investment alternative to, the east coast. If it works, it could be a model which might also work in other areas.

The Minister has established a task force to drive this concept forward. It involves Chambers Ireland and other business leaders and also includes the third level sector, key Departments and Government bodies. The Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, is its chairperson. It has met four times but we have also established a few subgroups to take certain issues forward in between the main meetings of the task force. For example, there is a subgroup looking at the issue of infrastructure. It is trying to map out the infrastructure in that particular region and identify where the gaps are and what might be needed to progress the concept. There is a second group which is looking at enterprise space to see what enterprise space might be available to support start-up or scale-up companies. We also have a third group, which has just been established, to deal with communications and communicating the message of the Atlantic economic corridor in order that it is widely understood. We also had a group looking at the prospect of EU funding and at what would be available. We are trying to bring some of those ingredients together to inform the task force's view on where investment might be needed. A number of submissions have been made into the national planning framework process, both from the Department itself and from Chambers Ireland, which have highlighted the potential of the Atlantic economic corridor.

We are acutely aware of the importance of broadband if we are to achieve the economic development I was speaking about, but also of its importance for social connectivity. So many people now stay in touch through social media, email and so on. As the Deputy is aware, the Department of the Minister, Deputy Naughten, has primary responsibility for the roll-out of the State-led investment in broadband in rural communities. I know the Minister is very familiar with some the issues Deputy Canney has raised. From the perspective of our own Department, we are playing our role in supporting the roll-out of broadband. As the Deputy knows, the tendering process for the State-led intervention has yet to be completed. Our own Department has a unit which is facilitating and anticipating the roll-out of broadband and helping to prepare for it.

The Department is supporting the appointment of broadband officers in each of the local authorities. All 31 local authorities now have broadband officers in place. They look at both broadband and mobile phone reception. The initiative of appointing broadband officers has proven to be very well received by those in the industry because they now have a single point of contact in each local authority to whom they can go. Through the broadband officers, we are trying to resolve issues which might otherwise slow down the roll-out of broadband once the contracts are awarded. We are not confined to broadband roll-out under that particular strand or phase of the roll-out. The broadband officers are also there to facilitate providers who may be providing broadband commercially at the moment.

The Deputy may be aware that a task force on mobile phone and broadband access published a report at the end of 2016. An implementation group was set up to oversee and drive the implementation of the 40 recommendations which the task force made. The task force had very good representation from rural communities and rural stakeholders. Good work is taking place there. The progress report for the third quarter will be published shortly and will be made available on our Department's website. With the local authorities and the broadband officers, we are starting work on the development of digital strategies and a digital readiness assessment tool for the local authorities in order that they can make the best use of high-speed broadband once it is connected and made available to them. We are also working with the local authorities to identify possible priority areas for connection once the broadband is rolled out in order that we can connect points which will have the best possible impact for a community. That might mean connecting a community centre or some other public building.

In a way, we are trying to pave the way for the full roll-out of broadband.

The final point that the Deputy made concerned the rural transport programme. Again, the committee will appreciate that this falls under the remit of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. In September the LocalLink branding and programme were launched, and some improvements have been made in routes already. Our understanding is that the National Transport Authority expects to deliver some additional routes, and we will be looking for a report from it through the monitoring process early in 2018.