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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 41 together.

I thank the Deputies for raising this issue. Remote working has the potential to transform rural Ireland, allowing people to build careers in good-quality jobs while continuing to live closer to home and to generate increased economic activity in our rural towns. The commitment to establish a comprehensive and integrated network of 400 remote working hubs is a key plank in the Government's new rural development policy, Our Rural Future.

An interdepartmental working group, chaired by the Secretary General of my Department, was established last October to oversee the development of a national hub network. After undertaking an extensive discovery process, the working group provisionally identified more than 400 hubs across the country. As the lead agency building the network, the Western Development Commission, funded by my Department, the Department of Rural and Community Development, has now engaged with, surveyed and mapped more than 300 of these hubs.

My Department and the other members of the interdepartmental group are engaged in the establishment of an integrated network of these remote working facilities with shared back office services and a common booking platform for hub users. I look forward to launching the national network, which will operate under the connected hubs brand, later this month. Our ambition is for the national network to have at least 40 hubs using the shared platform at launch and more than 100 on board by year end.

In addition to the supports and tools being developed under the national hub network programme, I have allocated €5 million to fund a connected hubs call under the town and village renewal scheme this year. This initiative will provide funding to support small-scale capital works in existing hubs and broadband connection points.

The type of things we want to support with that €5 million call are the insulation of pods; access control and security systems in existing hubs; the conversion of existing open-plan space to pods; perhaps the upgrade of meeting rooms; upgrading disability access; external signage; in particular, IT network upgrades in terms of wiring and access points and to make sure we have a secure control system; innovative measures to assist existing hubs to deal with Covid-19 challenges; and promotion and marketing campaigns to raise awareness of improvements made to drive increased hub usage.

We have mapped out 326 hubs and another 43 are in progress, so we will soon have close to 400 hubs mapped out. That is a mixture of private sector hubs and local authority and public sector hubs. We have been working with local authorities and communities throughout the country in developing these facilities. We want to improve the facilities which are there and encourage more people to take up the option of working in a co-working space.

We all know Covid-19 has taught us one thing, that we can change and have a better quality of life and we do not need sit for hours in traffic when we can work from home. A co-working space is a better place to go, so we have identified this network of hubs and we want to facilitate people. They can go online and book their hub and there are advantages to the hub operators engaging with us in this process.

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