Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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889. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the address location of all operational and proposed regional work hubs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [51301/22]

Heather 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. A hub identification and mapping exercise began in late 2020 and is ongoing.

In furtherance of this commitment, my Department’s focus to date has been on strategically developing the Connected Hubs ecosystem, the Network's shared online booking platform connectedhubs.ie, adding capacity to Ireland's existing remote working infrastructure, and supporting the establishment of new hubs.

There are currently 293 remote and co-working facilities across the country on-boarded to the connectedhubs.ie platform. 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 attached table provides a breakdown of the 293 hubs by county.

An interactive map is available on connectedhubs.ie that shows all the hubs that have been identified and mapped, and also provides useful information, such as addresses and the services that are available at each site, in relation to each of the hubs. This map can be found at the following : www.connectedhubs.ie/nationalhubsmap.html.

Over €100m has been invested by my department towards the establishment and 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. Approximately €14 million in funding has also been allocated to almost 200 projects via the Connected Hubs fund, enabling successful applicants to add additional capacity to existing remote working infrastructure in digital hubs and Broadband Connection Points) throughout the country.

To date my focus has been on establishing the Connected Hub Network and on achieving this initial critical mass. Following strong progress on the establishment phase of the project, my focus has now shifted to the next stage of development. To this end, my officials have been consulting with hub managers across the country, with local authorities and communities, and with other stakeholders, including colleagues from the Department of Enterprise Trade & Employment, to better inform the future strategic direction of the National Hub Network and the connectedhubs.ie platform.

I am committed to ensuring that the National Hub Network will continue to make a central contribution to the achievement of the Government's vision for rural Ireland, as set out in Our Rural Future.