Gareth Scahill (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State. At a time when Ireland has nearly 100% employment, we have the capacity to deliver high-paying, knowledge-based jobs directly into the heart of rural communities. Tens of thousands of remote-working roles are available globally. Ireland is well-positioned to capture a significant share of this market. By establishing the right structures, Ireland could create a fourth pillar of employment, complementing indigenous companies, foreign direct investment and agriculture.

I met a lady on Saturday. She is a Dublin native, but lives in Ballyhaunis in east Mayo. She said she is getting a city wage in a rural community, which means she is in the position of living a much better quality of life through remote working. She thinks it needs to be encouraged a lot more. I spoke to employees of Grow Remote recently. Its co-founder, Tracy Keogh, recently spoke about the programme for Government.

The cross-party group needs to set up an agency responsible for winning a proportion of remote jobs available to the market. If we were to land 10,000 of the available 100,000 jobs, it would mean €130 million for the taxpayer and jobs in the most remote regions of Ireland. It will require structural changes, as we are not currently set up to drive this. Some EU funding structures do not incentivise remote work. We need quick wins to ring-fence remote jobs to the island of Ireland. We have invested heavily in this particular sector. We just need to follow through and support the delivery of these jobs and the investment we have already made in the sector.