John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy English, to the Chamber. I echo the comments of my colleague on Senator Currie and the fantastic work she did in this area before it was popular to do so.

There is no doubt we are in an era of change. Covid-19 has probably accelerated the move towards remote work and remote learning. It has probably accelerated it by several years. It was going to happen but Covid has moved the process along. The possibilities are endless. We have probably seen a glimpse into the future of what it will be like. We have seen the advantages of remote GP consultations, remote medical services, smart farming, cloud computing, reduced travel and emissions and online public services.There are probably many such developments that we have not seen yet. Facebook did not exist ten years ago but we now have so many thousand people employed in companies directly associated with it. There are many more such examples. There will be so many online opportunities to work. This affords towns, villages and cities outside Dublin a great opportunity to attract people back to them. From them, staff can still work for major multinational corporations based in Dublin. A member of staff might need to be in Dublin for only one day per week and might be working at home or in a remote hub for the other four. As other Senators have said, the blend is what will be appropriate. My wife has been working at home for 12 months at this stage. The lack of an office environment is difficult, particularly when there is nobody else in the house. I am acutely aware that while the opportunities are vast, we must also be conscious that we need to have a balance.

In my county, Waterford, 15,000 homes will eventually be connected through the national broadband plan. Many of the strategies being mentioned would not be possible without that plan. The decisions made by the previous Government to accelerate the plan are now bearing fruit and will continue to do so over the coming years.