Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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3431. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the progress that has been made on establishing additional remote work hubs in rural Waterford as promised under Our Rural Future. [43632/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Our Rural Future 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 the end of 2025. There are currently 387 remote and co-working hubs across the country on-boarded to the connectedhubs.ie platform. This includes ten hubs in County Waterford, increasing from four when the platform was launched in 2021. Details of all the onboarded hubs are available at www.connectedhubs.ie.

My Department has also invested significantly in the establishment and development of hubs through the range of schemes which make up my Department's Rural Development Investment Programme. This includes funding the development of new and existing hubs under schemes such as the Town and Village Renewal Scheme, the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund and LEADER.

In 2021 and 2022 I implemented a new targeted scheme to support the development of facilities in hubs across Ireland. Almost €14 million in funding to some 200 projects was allocated via the 'Connected Hub Calls', which included €240,800 to hubs in County Waterford. The types of facilities developed under this fund included improved and more efficient remote working spaces, installation of privacy booths, energy savings and improvements.

I am committed to ensuring that the Connected Hubs 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.

The programme for Government commits to the further development of the connected hubs network, and I will be publishing the first National Hub Strategy later this year. This strategy will chart out our vision for the future development of remote working and enterprise hubs currently in place in County Waterford and across the country, and ensure a sustainable future for these important assets.