Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Tánaiste to the Seanad. I have spoken to retail businesses in counties Roscommon and Galway. They have welcomed the supports over the past year and eight months, particularly the restart grant. It is good to hear about the commercial rates waiver for local authorities until March 2022. Everywhere we see people looking to shop local. There has been an investment of more than €9 million in Roscommon town. A team has been cleaning the brand-new civic square in recent weeks getting ready for Christmas. We need to make the towns in Roscommon and Galway places to live and work with a great quality of life. Today we have had the announcement of Ballinasloe as the first stop in the west on the Galway to Athlone, if not the Moscow to Galway, cycleway. Ballinasloe will be up there on a global setting. At a very basic level, this type of investment in our towns and villages means safe places to walk and cycle in towns with no parks or footpaths. I hope many people are listening to us today. I ask them why not consider moving west and working remotely and having a great quality of life.

Last weekend, Grow Remote in Ballinasloe held a festive heritage walking tour of the town to showcase the region. A local pub, An Táin, was willing to provide hotspots to customers to be grow remote friendly. It is good to hear about the legislation on right to request remote working. Our towns are working hard to attract people to work remotely in their areas. I thank the Minister and we will speak again on some of these points.