Written answers

Wednesday, 22 June 2022

Department of Rural and Community Development

Flexible Work Practices

Photo of Mary ButlerMary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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249. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development her plans to incorporate national regional development policy into the roll-out of the rurally based remote working hubs in an effort to regenerate towns and villages; if such rural regeneration initiatives will facilitate the distribution of public service roles and associated job opportunities to rural towns and villages; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33067/22]

Photo of Heather HumphreysHeather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Our Rural Future, Ireland’s Rural Development Policy was launched in early 2021. The policy recognises the opportunity for rural rejuvenation that remote working presents and commits to establishing a comprehensive and integrated national network of 400 remote working hubs by 2025.

In furtherance of this commitment, my Department’s focus to date has been on strategically developing a national hubs network, and adding capacity to Ireland's existing remote working infrastructure. 

Over €100m has been invested in the development of remote working facilities through programmes such as the Town and Village Renewal Scheme and the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund. Successful projects are developed in collaboration with Local Authorities and Communities with many projects seeing vacant and derelict buildings in rural towns and villages converted into remote working hubs.

In May 2021, I launched our National Hubs Network - Connected Hubs.  Connected Hubs is a shared online booking and payments platform for member hubs and their users.  There are currently 249 remote and co-working facilities across the State on Connected Hubs. This number is growing all the time meaning we are well on track to meet our target of 400 remote working hubs nationwide by 2025. The network includes a diverse range of hubs, services and facilities, thus facilitating companies of different sizes.

The Deputy will appreciate that following the launch of Our Rural Future in 2021, the immediate priority over the past year has been on establishing the national hubs network, putting the necessary infrastructure in place and achieving an initial critical mass.

Following strong progress on the establishment phase of the project with hubs now in place across every county, our focus has now shifted to the next stage of development. This will include working with our enterprise agencies as well as the private and public sector to raise awareness of the Connected Hubs network and its benefits for both workers and employers. To this end, I recently launched a new Voucher Scheme which will allow users who register on ConnectedHubs.ie to avail of three free days working from a Hub between now and the end of August.

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