Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am absolutely committed, as is the Government, to try to accelerate this programme to ensure it does deliver right across the country. If I can take Kiskeam as an example, my understanding is that one of the proposals there is that the post office may become the local connection point, where one could have a working hub for remote working in a social community-centred sort of way. As it happens, I met the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys, coming in here this evening and one of the items in her budget that I was very pleased to see agreed on Tuesday was €5 million for the provision of remote working centres within the centres of community where we could do exactly what the Deputy is suggesting, which is to try to create these working hub centres. I will follow up with An Post and with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, to see if this is such a suitable venue.

Taking this as an example, we should use this moment right across this country to change and transform from a position of real difficulty and to accelerate positive things, particularly in rural Ireland. The remote working approach is very real and is happening now with hundreds of thousands of people. It will work best where there is a social aspect to it and has an enterprising crossover aspect that will come when one gets people working together and using community facilities. This will bring life back into the centre of villages and towns. Critical for that is the provision of broadband infrastructure. Without that nothing can happen. The national broadband plan will be transformative and will be seen in the end as being of historic consequence for this country because it provides the infrastructure of the future. It will be rolled out in the next four years and by definition has to go to every area and cover every single house. Beyond that we should be looking at how we can build up communities and that is what I sense from Deputy Moynihan and I fully support that.

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