Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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325. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the number of persons facilitated by council-backed remote working hubs (details supplied) in County Wexford in 2024. [5455/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Our Rural Future, our national rural development policy, clearly recognises the range of benefits that increased remote working opportunities can deliver in rural communities across Ireland. Accordingly, it commits to the establishment of a network over 400 remote working hubs over the lifetime of the policy.

In 2021, was launched for remote working hubs across the country. The platform offers a suite of booking and hub management applications to members of the connected hub network and their customers. There are currently 369 hubs on the Connected Hubs platform, and remote workers can use the platform to easily identify what remote working hubs are available in their area and what services are provided in those hubs.

Across the hubs onboarded to Connect Hubs at present, there is a range of models in place as regards ownership of the hubs. For example, some are run as privately owned businesses, some are owned and operated by local community groups, while others are managed by local authorities. Similarly the types of services offered by individual hubs differs across the network, with some hubs focusing on hot-desking arrangements for remote workers, while others focus more on enterprise and innovation supports for individual client companies.

There are currently 12 hubs in Wexford on the connected hubs platform, and the national pattern of different ownership models and service provision is replicated across these hubs. For example, the Hatch Lab referred to by the Deputy is a Tech Incubator space designed specifically for technology companies, and offers a range of hot desking, meeting room and permanent desk options for clients. The services offered by the Hatch Lab can be booked via the connected hubs platform or via direct contact with the hub itself. The Hatch Lab project was supported by Wexford County Council in collaboration with private sector partners. More widely, Wexford County Council has also been supporting the hubs in the county, for example via promotional campaigns.

While recognising the different ownership models and types of service provision across hubs, my officials have requested an update from Wexford County Council in relation to usage patterns in supported hubs. This material will be forwarded to the Deputy under separate cover as it is received