David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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126. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the progress that has been made to date in establishing a remote working hub in an area (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45149/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Our Rural Future, Ireland’s Rural Development Policy 2021-2025, recognises the potential of remote working hubs as key economic assets for our rural towns and villages.

Through schemes such as the Town and Village Renewal Scheme and the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund my Department has invited applications from local authorities and local communities for a range of projects in recent years, including the development of remote working hub facilities. To date, some €100 million has been invested under such schemes to support the establishment, improvement, and sustainability of hubs.

In May 2021, I launched the National Hub Network. This currently comprises of 281 remote and co-working facilities across the State. These facilities have been onboarded to connectedhubs.ie, the shared online booking and payments platform for member hubs and their users.

The Network includes a range of hubs catering for a wide variety of remote and co-working needs. It is expected that, in time, the network and the platform will include more than 400 facilities.

27 of the 281 hubs on the connectedhubs.ie platform are located in County Cork, and a further 19 hubs throughout the county have been invited to join the network, including the Enterprise Youghal hub.

On 8 June, I announced the 81 projects that were successful in securing funding from the 2022 Connected Hubs Call, allocating €5 million to add additional capacity to existing remote working hubs and Broadband Connection Points throughout the country. Over €515,000 was allocated to County Cork, with funding going to, amongst others, Charleville Enterprise Centre, Plus10 Coworking and Innovation Space and Mix Coworking.

This follows the award of almost €9 million in funding allocated via the 2021 Connected Hubs Call, of which approximately €425,000 was allocated to County Cork.

I am committed to continuing my Department's support for the ongoing strategic development of a comprehensive and integrated network of remote working hubs in recognition of the vital role that they can play in our post-Covid recovery.