Ireland launches a five-year National Hub Network Strategy with 36 measures

Ireland’s Minister for Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht, Dara Calleary, launched the National Hub Network Strategy 2026 to 2030 at the National Hub Summit in Ballinasloe on 22 October. The strategy sets out 36 measures covering hub infrastructure, rural digital access and support for small businesses, and was developed with the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment and the Western Development Commission.

The network it builds on has grown considerably. Connected Hubs began as a Western Development Commission pilot and now covers more than 400 hubs nationally, marking its fifth anniversary at the same summit.

Why this matters. Ireland is the only country in Europe running a state-backed remote working hub network at this scale, and the strategy commits to it for another five years rather than treating it as a pandemic-era experiment that has run its course. If you are working remotely in Ireland, or considering moving somewhere rural in Ireland while keeping a remote job, the practical question of whether there will be a usable workspace within reach has a better answer here than almost anywhere else on the continent.

The strategy’s inclusion of rural digital access alongside the hubs themselves is the part worth watching. A hub is only useful if the connectivity around it supports living there, not just visiting for the day. Ireland also opened its first national remote and hybrid work survey in the same week, which asks how remote work has changed decisions about where to live, so the evidence base for the next phase is being gathered now.