‘Disappointing' uptake for council's e-working centre
Westmeath County Council is to analyse the success of a private co-working space offered in Mullingar in an effort to kick-start its own stuttering e-working facility.
The local authority’s e-working centre based in the County Buildings in Mullingar was opened in 2013 amid much fanfare.
However, the council’s director of service Barry Kehoe admitted – at a meeting of Economic, Enterprise and Tourism Strategic Policy Committee on Friday February 15 at the Civic Offices in Athlone – that “they are not attracting numbers in the way that we would have expected”.
He said the facility was getting “very little use” and the council intended to discuss the matter with Enterprise Ireland as part of that agency’s plans to deliver a network of such ‘landing space’ facilities around the country.
This could involve upgrading the existing county council centre to Enterprise Ireland standards or developing a facility in Athlone.
A number of councillors expressed disappointment that take-up was low in the e-working centre.
Cllr Aengus O’Rourke, chair of the SPC, wondered if the problem related to more people being willing to work from home due to improved broadband provision.
Cllr John Dolan called for greater promotion of the facility, while Cllr Una D’Arcy queried if the culture of companies facilitating employees to work from such e-working centre had yet been developed.
She also suggested that the council had reacted to what it saw as a large number of people commuting out of the area to work, without researching who exactly the facility would be marketed at.
Instead, companies need to be prompted to release people who are commuting out of the area to work from such centres.
Mr Kehoe responded: “The LEO has been marketing our e-working centre extensively both with companies and individuals but it just doesn’t seem to have taken off.”
He said the feedback from a feasibility study was that people would use the centre.
He clarified that the cost is €15 per desk per day, although a reduced fee for monthly or weekly bookings would apply.
Responding to Cllr John Shaw, who highlighted the high take-up of co-working space provided by the Midlands Business Hub in Mullingar’s Dominic Street, Mr Kehoe said he would like to identify the factors.
The council official also confirmed he intended to visit a 60-seat facility in the Kells Enterprise Centre operated by a Meath County Council company, as well as a similar project in Galway.