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

In response to Deputy Stanton, decentralisation is now by choice and is called remote working. That is the best decentralisation and it is working. That is the good news.

Deputy Kerrane raised the matter of the report on rural-proofing. I have only just received the report. I will fully consider the options presented in consultation with my officials and I will weigh up the merits and challenges of each option. As I have said, my objective is to ensure we have an effective, efficient and implementable rural-proofing model that will support rural policy development and will consider and capitalise on the opportunities for rural areas. It is important to remember that rural-proofing, as the Deputy said, is about making all Government policies more effective by ensuring the specific needs and opportunities in rural areas are taken into consideration as early as possible in the policy development process. That will ultimately lead to better outcomes for rural communities, which is what we all want, as Deputy Farrell said.

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