Disused pubs across Donegal could be turned into working hubs under plans being worked on by the Government.
Pubs from Bundoran to Buncrana could be used as working hubs with high-speed broadband during the day before reverting back to serving food and drink at night.
A Government plan to reinvigorate rural Ireland aims to breathe new life into dying towns and villages by transforming disused derelict buildings and pubs into remote working hubs.
The IDA aims to target 400 investments for regional locations to create jobs as part of the scheme.
‘Our Rural Future: Rural Development Policy 2021-2025′, the Government’s plan for rural Ireland’s development over the next five years, will be announced this afternoon.
“This policy is Government saying to remote workers we want you to come and work in rural Ireland,” Minister of Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands, Heather Humphreys, said.
She said unprecedented changes foisted upon people by the pandemic present new opportunities for rural Ireland and the plan “is the most ambitious and transformational policy for rural Ireland in decades.
The report also commits to “explore the potential to develop a pilot scheme to support the use of rural pubs as community spaces and hubs for local services”.
Minister Humphreys said that “this is something that we have discussed with the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland. The concept is around what they have in the UK: the Hub in the Pub.
“We are teasing out how, maybe, pubs can be used for different purposes during the day. It could be working spaces. It could be community spaces. It could be many different things and we can look at having high-speed broadband there. We have yet to explore it,” she said.