Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The national broadband plan had difficulties in the first two years due to Covid, problems at local authority level, the technical aspect around ducting and so on. Those problems are starting to be resolved and the plan is on track. We will meet our targets for this year. Some 94,500 premises are ready to be connected; 21,100 of those are already doing so. Schools and the broadband connection point centres across the country are in place. We can never be happy that it is fast enough but it is starting to deliver.

I agree with the Deputy's central premise. There is huge potential for life to come back into the centres of towns and villages across rural Ireland, using broadband and new remote working systems. The Tánaiste will deliver legislation in that regard shortly. I accept this is a potential we need to deliver on. The Government recognises that. It set out a strategy in May 2021, a year and a half ago, that it would establish 400 remote working hubs by 2025, of which 300 are already up and running. They are in place and working. The other 100 will be done well in advance of that target deadline. They are in just the right places, typically the centres of towns and villages, in old courthouses, cinemas or convents. The Government has provided €100 million through the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, to help to deliver those and they are being delivered. The Minister also introduced, very cleverly, a voucher scheme so people could go in and trial it, test it, get used to it and see if it works for them. That is the practical and clever way. She has also resourced the local authorities so they can promote and make use of the hub network.

My sense, with which Deputies opposite might disagree, is that it is happening in towns around the country. It varies, depending on local circumstances, but we are starting to see the advent of remote working coming out of Covid, when different patterns were set in place. New broadband technologies mean one can share and send files, have Zoom meetings and do many other things. It is starting to happen. It is working. We need to go further. We need to use Croí Cónaithe funding to turn around derelict or disused buildings in the centre of towns, so people are living there as well as working. The towns that are seeing it happen are the ones that are progressing. It helps us to address our housing crisis. Rather than everyone having to be in the cities or expensive and difficult urban areas, we are using our incredible network of 19th-century market towns. We turned away from them in previous decades, but we are turning back now. Putting town centres first, using hubs, using broadband and allowing remote working is the way forward.

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