Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 October 2021
10. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development if additional funding will be provided for digital hubs particularly in north central areas of Cork city; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50120/21]
View answerI wish to ask the Minister if additional funding will be provided for the digital hubs, particularly in my consistency of Cork North-Central.
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. My Department currently operates a number of initiatives focused on supporting remote working, as outlined in Our Rural Future, the Government's rural redevelopment policy for the period from 2021 to 2025.
This summer, I awarded €8.8 million through the connected hubs funding stream for existing digital hubs and broadband connection points in every region. This investment will add capacity to remote working infrastructure with more than €3 million of the funding awarded to the southern region, including a number of successful projects in Cork.
In addition, the rural regeneration and development fund, RRDF, and the town and village renewal scheme both support the establishment of new digital hubs. Under this year's schemes, projects that bring vacant properties in town centres back into use as remote working hubs are eligible to apply for funding. Projects that repurpose existing community or publicly-owned buildings in town or village centres to facilitate remote working are also eligible.
Calls for applications for this year's funding streams are now closed and details of successful applications to date are available on my Department's website. Details of calls for applications to 2022 funding streams will be announced by my Department in due course. Applications to facilitate new digital hubs in the area to which the Deputy referred may also be eligible to apply under the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is responsible for administering that fund.
I am happy to confirm that I have secured additional funding in the budget to continue to provide support for the establishment and development of remote working hubs. I am committed to ensuring that remote working hubs continue to be available as viable options for remote workers across the country.
We all know the importance of a good quality high-speed broadband connection in modern times, particularly in remote rural areas. None of us here could do our jobs successfully without such a service and many businesses and jobs across the country depend on a stable, reliable Internet connection to ensure their competitiveness in a global market.
I welcomed initial funding for digital hubs across the country last year as I felt it would spread the benefits of the national broadband plan, NBP, and accelerate access to much sought-after broadband, particularly in areas where the broadband roll-out was a little slower. This morning, I was disappointed to hear that the plan is not likely to meet its targets for this year and Covid-19 is cited as the main reason for this delay. With that in mind, has the Minister any plans to increase the roll-out of digital hubs in our communities in addition to any of those initially planned?
The broadband connection points have proven to be successful. They are exactly for that purpose of allowing people who do not have high-speed broadband in their area to go to their local community hall or local centre. We have provided much support to the local authorities, which have identified where these broadband connection points need to go to get the high-speed broadband in place. We provided a great deal of money to help them kit out these halls and centres with furniture called "pods" in order that people can have a confidential space if they need to make a telephone call or whatever when they are working remotely.
I am a big believer in remote working spaces such as hubs and co-working spaces. I believe it is much healthier than working from home. I know some people like the blend between working from home and working in the office. The most important role we have is to continue to support the remote working hubs, however, because people are able to finish their day's work. It is hard to finish work when one is at home. It keeps going on and on and it sometimes has an impact on family life. At least when a person goes into a remote working space in his or her local area or town or village, he or she can stop working, go home and then start again the next day.
To follow on from that point, I believe it is going to be about blended working into the future. As somebody with three young kids, it is quite difficult to work at home at times. To get into one of these hubs could be quite beneficial for many people. I speak to constituents, particularly many of those working with multinational companies, who might not have to travel to the US or wherever they are going as often as they would if they had access to that high-speed broadband we are talking about.
I also welcome the connected hubs initiative and the additional funding for that, which will facilitate remote working not just for employees but it will also attract employers to areas they might not have previously considered locating. All this talk about broadband and hubs is contingent on getting broadband into these communities. Ahead of the full implementation of the NBP, which is now five years away, we need to endeavour to do all we can for these isolated communities.
Finally, we only have one such hub in my own constituency. People think of my constituency as predominantly urban but we also have many rural villages. It extends almost as far as Mallow and up to Deputy Sherlock's area. He can speak for areas such as Burnfort and Mourneabbey, which are rural as well. We need greater emphasis on those hubs in my area of Cork.
A number of hubs have been supported. I am delighted to support these remote working hubs across the country but in particular in Cork. Benchspace Cork and Republic of Work in Cork city received funding and there are a number of others. Of course, the greatest success of all is the Ludgate Hub.
That is an amazing centre, but we cannot all have a Ludgate Hub, but we can have small core working spaces we develop and work with. Our colleague, Deputy Michael Moynihan, is anxious about a project that has applied for funding to convert the old post office in Kiskeam into a remote working space. We want to support these initiatives, especially in the rural areas where there is not high-speed broadband, in order that people can call in and use the facilities. I want to hold onto the opportunities Covid has presented in remote working. I want to make sure that makes the difference in rural Ireland. It is important we all work to do so.
