Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is lovely to see the Minister in the House again. Even though the cost of the Covid crisis, financially, economically and socially, has been monumental, I am still optimistic about the future. We have the same raw ingredients that pulled us out of the last recession, including one of the most educated workforces in the world and the youngest population in Europe. Our cost of borrowing is low and our reputation for financial management is high. In the recent past, we had full employment and the fastest-growing economy in the eurozone. Despite all the ongoing sensitivities around Brexit, we are a valued member of the EU-27 team and the Single Market, and we are committed to the growth of an all-island economy.

At the same time, the problems we faced only 18 months ago are still fresh in my mind and are a warning to us for the future. Our economic recovery took off after the last recession but we did not have the public infrastructure to support it following the lack of investment in certain areas over the years. We must try to avoid that fate again. We have been held back by our lack of social and public infrastructure but we have seen through the Covid crisis that we can do things differently. The rule book has been thrown out when it comes to work practices and the naysayers have been proved wrong. We have shown that we can meet the challenges and do things differently. We need to rebuild our culture and infrastructure around the learnings of the past year. It is clear to me that quality of life, equal opportunities, regional balance, work-life balance and sustainable lifestyles are key.

One of the greatest trends during the Covid period has been the flourishing of mixed-purpose or mixed-use communities and the decline of single-purpose communities. We have seen how people working from home have flourished in places such as Castleknock and Blanchardstown, which I represent. People have been upping sticks and moving to different parts of rural Ireland.We are concerned about city centres. I take issue with anyone who suggests that city centres are dying. It is areas where offices or retail have dominated that have suffered the most, not city centres per se. It just so happens that our city centres are dominated by single-purpose uses. Surely it is an opportunity for us to make cities more liveable, to be more like European cities where families can live. Perhaps it is not working from home that will hollow out cities but an over-dependence on single-purpose areas. It is a much more sustainable way to live. The 15-minute city is based on hyperproximity principles, mixing residential areas with office and employment opportunities and social infrastructure made accessible by active transport and all accessible to each other.

I speak as someone who is from a suburban area, who has seen how main streets have suffered and who can see the potential that is in front of us now. I am a great advocate for the town centre first strategy. I agree with the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, that we need a joined-up strategy with supports for people in rural areas, suburban Dublin and city centres for local businesses, families and quality of life. We need investment if we want to change the way we live and work as well as in traditional areas such as schools and community centres. I agree with Senator Kyne that we desperately need a fund for community centres. That is the case in Dublin West. However, we must also encourage new types of investment in services such as community childcare and community co-working spaces. It does not have to involve new buildings. One of my ideas is that some of the closed Bank of Ireland branches, which are key buildings in towns, could be used for co-working spaces.

The Minister is aware of the 300 hubs we have in Ireland and how they are mostly enterprise hubs rather than co-working hubs. Running a co-working hub can be difficult to sustain financially without anchor tenancies. I suggest that the Minister would consider giving individuals the €3.20 per day tax relief companies can get. I ask him to consider its application to hubs, so that it could be used to provide a stipend to an employee using a hub. That would also help sustain hubs in the long term.

A design-and-build approach could also be considered, so that instead of communities themselves investing in hubs across the country, we could have a design-and-build approach based on preferred suppliers that could kit them out to a high standard for a better return on the investment. All of these measures must be taken strategically. We can line up investment in multipurpose centres that are co-working hubs and provide community childcare with Project Ireland 2040. We do not want hubs to be developed randomly around the country. We should invest in them strategically. Local authorities are really interested in this but they require funding, as they do not have specific funds and they have not been updated. I have lots of other ideas. We have started talking about remote working, but we have not started to talk about making communities ready for it. We talk about broadband, but we need to go further than that.