Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Minister in that remote working has the capacity to be game changing. We have seen it during the pandemic. I am thinking of Dungarvan, Lismore and west Waterford, where people had the opportunity to move down. These three questions are complementary. It was interesting to see them grouped. Deputy Ó Muimhneacháin is asking about the roll-out of the technology. Deputy Dillon is asking about the buildings and the physical infrastructure. I am asking about the people. How do we entice people to move down the country or how do we make it easier for them to make that decision? What kinds of nudges can we put in place? Portugal put in place quite an interesting scheme called the work inland programme, where a grant of up to €4,800 was made available to people who wanted to change from the larger cities and move down to work. I wonder whether we have sufficient supports in place for companies, in the same way, to make it available and attractive to them to allow their employees to engage in remote or blended working in order that we see those people we need to see moving down the country.

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