Only 1,800 have registered to date on an app to use 242 remote working hubs

Only 1,800 people have registered to date on the app to use the 242 remote working hubs on the Government’s Connected Hubs Network across the State.

The Department of Rural and Community Develop has to date invested around €100 million in the development of remote working facilities. On Wednesday the Minister for Rural Affairs, Heather Humphreys, said there would be a network of 400 remote hubs in place well in advance of the 2025 deadline.

Registering with the app allows people who are working remotely to book spaces in the centres, yet so far only about eight people per facility on average are using the app.

However, the Western Development Commission (WDC), which is running the network, said the relatively low uptake of registrations does not reflect overall activity at the hubs. It said many users of remote hubs have not registered, and has estimated that 11,000 of the 22,000 seats available (or 50 per cent) are occupied at any time.

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There are no figures available as yet as to how many people in the Irish economy are working from home at present but not availing of hubs.

Ms Humphreys was speaking at the Creative Spark hub in Dundalk, Co Louth, as part of a campaign to raise awareness about the opportunities presented by remote hubs. She said she wanted to continue building on the phenomenon which began during Covid of people working from home, or locally, rather than making daily commutes (often long distance) to offices.

The Minister announced a new €5 million initiative in Dundalk to improve facilities in 81 of the remote hubs nationwide. She also announced that 10,000 vouchers for full-day-use of hot desks at remote hubs will be issued to existing users allowing three free days. The vouchers will also be used by new people who can try out remote working for three days.

The third initiative announced by Ms Humphreys was a grant of €50,000 to each local authority to promote the remote working hubs in their areas.

The drive is to encourage more people who are commuting long distance or are working remotely from their kitchen tables or sittingrooms, to consider using local hubs as more long-term and feasible alternatives as work spaces.

The most recent remote working survey conducted by the Whittaker Institute at National University of Ireland, Galway, showed that 30 per cent of respondents would change jobs – even if it means a pay cut – if their remote working preferences were not facilitated.

The chief executive of the Western Development Commission, Tomás Ó Síocháin, said on Wednesday that approximately half of the 22,000 seats in the 250 or so connected hubs were filled on a daily basis. He said take-up depended on the setting. He said many digital hubs in urban settings were very busy, while those in more rural settings were less so. However, he said that in rural places even small numbers using a hub could be a critical factor in sustaining community services like schools, post offices and local businesses.

“There is a growing demand and that’s been reinforced by the surveys conduced by NUI which showed that 10 per cent of respondents have moved from urban settings to rural settings in the past few year, and have begun to work remotely,” he said.

Mr Ó Síocháin said on Wednesday that the primary focus over the past few years has been establishing the network of hubs and the challenge now was to raise awareness about them and about their benefits.

Ms Humphreys said it was important that the country does not lose the opportunity for working remotely that arose as a result of the pandemic. “We saw that people were working remotely which had not happened before.”

She said she had encouraged the idea in 2019, but that there had not been much engagement. After Covid people were fully engaged.

“This concept of remote working, I want to encourage more people to take up the option, particularly using the remote working hubs. Because if you are at home and you are working from the kitchen table it’s not a particularly healthy place to to be. It may suit on occasion but generally it’s better if you come into a properly kitted-out working facility.”

She added that remote working legislation had completed its pre-legislative scrutiny by the Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, and she expected to see its publication in the near future.