Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 November 2022
639. Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the cumulative budget allocated to the town and village renewal scheme connected hubs call from 2017 to 2022; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [56390/22]
View answerOur Rural Future (2021-2025), Ireland’s Rural Development Policy was launched in early 2021. The policy recognises the opportunity for rural rejuvenation that remote working presents and the potential of remote working hubs as key economic assets for our rural towns and villages.
My Department operates a number of funding schemes that support projects that facilitate remote working through the development of digital hubs, including the development of Public Broadband Connection Points (BCPs).
In May 2021 I launched the National Hubs Network together with its online platform, connectedhubs.ie, provides users with information on the location of, and facilities available at, remote working and enterprise hubs throughout Ireland. The platform offers a suite of booking, hub management and e-commerce applications to members of the Network. It also facilitates the sharing of innovation, experience and best practices across the community. These supports serve to maximise benefit to member hubs, hub clients, employers, local communities and the wider economy.
To date, approximately 295 hubs have joined the Connected Hubs Network. 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.
To date over €100 million has been invested by my Department in the development of remote working facilities, through programmes such as the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund and the Town and Village Renewal Scheme. 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.
In 2021, for the first time the Rural Development Investment Programme’s Town and Village Renewal Scheme included a Connected Hubs Call in support of the National Hub Network initiative. The overall aim of the fund was to enable successful applicants develop and leverage the capacity and quality of Ireland's existing remote working infrastructure across the country. In 2021 almost €9 million in Connected Hubs funding was awarded to 118 successful applicants. A further €5 million in Connected Hubs 2022 funding was allocated to 81 successful applicants across the country. A full list of successful applicants is available via gov.ie (www.gov.ie/en/collection/49822-2021-connected-hubs-fund-successful-applicants/).
To date my focus has been on establishing the Connected Hub Network and achieving the initial critical mass. Following strong progress on the establishment phase of both projects, 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, to better inform the future strategic direction of the National Hub Network and the connectedhubs.ie platform.
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.
