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

The Deputy is right. When I was Minister with responsibility for business, a young lad with a wife and children said to me it is a no-brainer. He said people need to be able to work in their communities and said it makes such a difference to his home life. It is true. Many people have now discovered they are able to spend more time with their families. It is a better quality of life at the end of day but it is also good for communities and for the environment. We will certainly look at the area.

Let us face it that the one good thing is that we have signed national broadband plan. That was the best thing we ever did. It is not a question now of whether we should have it but when we will get it. The most frequent representation in my constituency office these days is on when people can get broadband. Of course, we are working on that.

In Deputy Durkan's constituency, I notice that under the town and village renewal scheme hub investment in County Kildare and the 2020 accelerated measure, which was to cope with Covid-19, a nice application came in for the kit-out of a broadband connection point. The applicants got €9,900 to renovate and decorate rooms in Bigstone, Crookstown, County Kildare. They will renovate and decorate rooms for remote working to provide seating desks and IT equipment so sites can be used for remote working and learning. The learning is the other bit and we can have education rolled out in these centres.

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