Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste. This is great progress. It is not just about rural communities. In my town of Dún Laoghaire, 140,000 people live within ten minutes of a major urban town in the greater Dublin area, 34% of whom are under 30 and want to be in businesses driven by innovation and knowledge. George's Street, which is the main street, is 1.2 km long and has 264 shopfronts, many of which have been vacant for a very long time. There is an opportunity for the people of Dún Laoghaire to be able to work in jobs that have a city centre presence partially from hubs in Dún Laoghaire, with the support of very good broadband and the creation of these facilities. There is a very strong climate argument to it. Instead of creating large corporate hubs around the periphery of Dublin, we will be able to have facilities whereby people can be closer to home and have less travel and driving. This will involve less creation of new commercial space and the repurposing of existing space. I will be really interested to hear how the Tánaiste thinks we can revitalise our urban centres as well as remote working hubs in the country.

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