My Department has given funding to Galway County Council with advice on preparing a draft business case. The Department has also provided funding of €39,360 to Galway County Council for the preparation of the modelling simulations. The project will take some time, but progress has been made. The key aspect is that there is co-operation between the county council and the NMCI. There are problems with the harbour, for example relating to boat capacity and access issues due to currents. The council must develop a busi…

I imagine that Galway County Council has been engaging with the community on Inis Meáin. Some of the Deputy's colleagues have raised the matter with me numerous times. I am sure they have been in contact with the community as well. Deputy Ó Cuív has had a long-standing interest in ensuring this project is brought to fruition. I wish to reassure the Deputy the national development plan is up for review. We want to ensure this project is in it - it is absolutely essential. We are talking about what will probably be a…

I agree with the Deputy that this has been going on for a considerable period. I am personally committed to trying to do all I can to assist in progressing the matter. I understand the difficulties with the cargo ship - that it cannot get in and out - and that it is badly needed. My officials are keeping in contact with the island committee. My officials will be happy to meet them again to discuss progress on the project. I am happy to provide the Deputy with an outline of where this project is and where it needs t…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 7, 12 and 18 together. The programme for Government includes a commitment to prioritise a State-led programme to bridge the gap between the current LEADER programme and the next EU programme. The objective of this commitment is to allow a local-led rural development project to be delivered under a transitional programme until the new EU programme commences. The next EU programme will not commence until 2022 at the earliest. In recent months, my Department has listened to the views o…

I know the Mayo local development companies do good work. I wish to continue to support the companies in finishing off this programme. The end of this year is the end date for announcing new projects. Some of the companies still have several projects and applications to which they have yet to allocate funding. It will take some time for these projects to draw down the money. The local development companies will be fairly busy in the coming year and a half or so in ensuring these projects are delivered. They will be…

I agree with Deputy Calleary that the staff in Ballina do really good work there, work extremely hard and engage a lot. I have spoken to them on a number of occasions via the Internet, on Zoom, Webex or whatever else they are using, but I hope to visit Ballina as soon as I can. As for the Northern and Western Regional Assembly, I was delighted to work on that matter with Deputy Calleary and the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, who gave approval for the funding to be rolled out. That is extremely important. I am co…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The Department leads on the implementation of the public library strategy, Our Public Libraries 2022, which aims to improve access to, use and visibility of the library as a community hub and a focal point for cultural development. In 2020 alone my Department has allocated over €8 million to support public library services. This includes the libraries capital programme, which will invest some €29 million in 18 projects and in the My Open Library service over the next few y…

I take the Deputy's point that libraries can be controlled fairly well and I know that the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA, and the local authority chief executives have asked for libraries to operate contact and collect at level 4. They have made proposals and we are happy to bring those proposals to the Department of the Taoiseach and NPHET for consideration. I absolutely accept the point the Deputy makes, that it is hard to see the risks in click and collect. Since the beginning of the pandemic the Depa…

Library membership has gone up considerably since the lockdown and that is really good. As for online material alone, in March 2020, 17,865 new users registered to use the online BorrowBox service, which provides access to ebooks. That was a 702% increase in the number of new users. There has also been a 122% increase in the number of ebooks borrowed this year and a 111% increase in the number of audio ebooks borrowed. We will continue to engage, particularly with those marginalised communities to try to get them t…

I have a prepared response but I will leave it because it is similar to what I said earlier. This is it; this is our opportunity. Remote working, or as I prefer to call it, connected working, will be a game changer not just for rural Ireland but for the urban areas as well. Many people living in the Deputy's area get on a train, bus or whatever to come into the centre of the city when, in fact, they could be working in a co-working space close to their homes and in their community. That is what I mean by connected …

The Deputy is absolutely right. There is a broad consensus across the House that this is the time to do it and this is the right opportunity. I discussed public servants earlier. We need to facilitate our public servants to go into designated co-working spaces in towns across the country. We must have it mapped out and planned. That is why we have the interdepartmental group led by my Department. I am aware the Tánaiste's Department is leading a policy on remote working. I am looking after these hubs and an interde…

The Deputy is right. When I was Minister with responsibility for business, a young lad with a wife and children said to me it is a no-brainer. He said people need to be able to work in their communities and said it makes such a difference to his home life. It is true. Many people have now discovered they are able to spend more time with their families. It is a better quality of life at the end of day but it is also good for communities and for the environment. We will certainly look at the area. Let us face it that…

The responsibility for the roll-out of the national broadband plan falls within the Minister, Deputy Ryan's, Department. I know he is working closely with National Broadband Ireland, NBI, in an effort to try to roll this out as quickly as possible. In the meantime, however, the good news is my Department has a number of broadband connection points in the local community halls. A person can go in there and get the high-speed broadband he or she needs. That is why I have provided money. I just mentioned one in County…

That might be bad for the Deputy's health.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The Government is aware of the challenges facing community and voluntary organisations and is committed to working closely with the sector in managing those challenges, recognising that it will require a whole-of-government approach. The community and voluntary sector Covid-19 stability fund provided €35 million initially from the Dormant Accounts Fund. It was intended to be a targeted once-off cash injection for organisations and groups currently delivering critical front…

The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, is looking at how best to administer the €10 million allocation. It has been assigned to us and we are very pleased to get it. He is working with stakeholders and officials to ensure it is targeted where it is most needed. That process will be completed very shortly. In terms of the €5 million that was not spent by my Department, there are a number of instances where applications were submitted but certain information was not included. There is an appeals process and some proje…

I take the Deputy's point that the organisations want to get the details of this funding as quickly as possible. We are very conscious of that but we also want to ensure that it is properly targeted. It is a once-off cash injection for the organisations and groups that are delivering critical front-line services. They include disability services, meals on wheels, mental health services, addiction supports, residential care centres and services for older people. There is a range of services that are targeted in this…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Broadband connection points will be among the first sites connected under the national broadband plan. They represent a collaboration between my Department, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, local authorities and the communities that will host the BCP services.  At present, there are more than 200 public access BCP sites scheduled for connection in 2020, in addition to 75 BCPs located in schools. Up to 100 more public access sites are planned f…

The broadband connection points have been identified by the broadband officers in the local authorities and we have been working on their recommendations on what areas we can connect. We can talk to the broadband officer in Kerry and we will see if there are any problems. If Deputy Daly wants to write to me specifically about the problems that are being encountered on the connection point he is talking about, I am happy to follow that up. The best thing we ever did was sign up to the national broadband plan. There …

The Deputy will appreciate there has been a huge increase in the number of PUP applications in the last number of weeks. The officials in my Department have been working extremely hard in engaging with the applicants in terms of details that were not provided but that we need in order to process the payments. There are a number of applications that we are dealing with. I assure the Deputy we are getting through them as quickly as possible. There were people who claimed but did not have a record, although they did h…