Written answers

Thursday, 15 December 2022

Department of Rural and Community Development

Rural Schemes

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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67. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development if she has an early indication of the uptake of connected hubs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [62744/22]

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 the National Hub Network and 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 298 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 298 hubs by county (including hubs that have been mapped and identified to join the network).

To date, approximately €150m 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.

This investment includes €14 million to almost 200 projects via the Connected Hubs fund between 2021 and 2022, enabling successful applicants to add additional capacity to existing remote working infrastructure in digital hubs and Broadband Connection Points throughout the country.

The Deputy will appreciate that following the launch of Our Rural Future, the immediate priority has been on establishing the National Hub Network, putting the necessary infrastructure in place and achieving this initial critical mass.

Following strong progress on the establishment phase of the project our focus has shifted to the next stage of development. In June, I launched the Connected Hubs Voucher Scheme, designed to encourage those who have never used a hub to do so. The Scheme also supports those that are considering spending more time each week using a hub, rather than working from home. Since the launch of the Voucher Scheme, customers registered with connectedhubs.ie has risen to more than 10,000, an increase of more than 450%.

I am also pleased to say that the connectedhubs.ie team have for some time been developing a corporate service to engage with and support corporate clients interested in using our nationwide network to accommodate their employees, but also to gain access to the vast pool of talent that Ireland has to offer, whether those talented people live in our cities, towns, villages or rural parishes. I believe that this work represents a significant opportunity for employers of all sizes to leverage the National Hub Network directly.

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.

TABLE 1 – Connectedhubs.ie - Remote Working Hubs by County (as of the 12th of December 2022)

Live on the connectedhubs.ie platform Mapped to be invited to join the connectedhubs.ie platform Total
Carlow 5 8 13
Cavan 7 7 14
Clare 13 10 23
Cork 30 16 46
Donegal 15 18 33
Dublin 46 35 81
Galway 24 31 54
Kerry 19 9 28
Kildare 8 6 14
Kilkenny 3 7 10
Laois 4 7 11
Leitrim 9 17 26
Limerick 13 13 26
Longford 4 6 10
Louth 8 9 17
Mayo 22 18 40
Meath 6 17 23
Monaghan 6 9 15
Offaly 6 11 17
Roscommon 8 14 22
Sligo 6 8 14
Tipperary 10 21 31
Waterford 8 10 18
Westmeath 3 10 13
Wexford 7 10 17
Wicklow 8 3 11
Total 298 332 630

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