Michael Lowry (Tipperary North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the chairman and management of the company and thank them for their presentation. I want to address three issues but will start with the two principal issues, as I see them, relating to carbon tax and PSO. Then I want to talk about the relationship between the management of the company and its workforce. The constituency I represent contains Littleton and Templetuohy, both of which have been very productive and are central to the economic and social life of our area. Local communities have developed around Bord na Móna, which is a traditional industry, and relations between the company, the community and its workforce have been very good.

According to the presentation the carbon tax is a major influencer of the downturn in the activity of Bord na Móna. The public service obligation requirement on the ESB and the financial contribution it makes are also an issue. These are the two key issues. Carbon tax was introduced at the insistence of the Green Party during the course of the last Government. I supported that Government and when the carbon tax was brought in I was approached by the unions and management in Littleton, including the manager at the time, Mr. Ray Yates.

There is a man who is about to retire from the company and who has given fantastic service. I worked with him over the years as a public representative and he is a big loss to the company. He enjoyed the confidence of his workforce and is what I would call a proper manager. I want to put that on the record. When that issue came up, I raised it directly with the then Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, before going to the Taoiseach of the time, Brian Cowen, who was intimately aware of the consequences of the imposition of carbon tax on briquettes. It was agreed in that budget that there would be a derogation, and that there would be no carbon tax on briquette products. We moved on then and the current Government has twice slapped a carbon tax on these products, which has made them uncompetitive and is creating a serious problem.

The second issue concerns the public service obligation levy, PSO. It is not a coincidence that the reduction in the PSO equates to €24 million, while the savings Bord na Móna is expecting from staff are also approximately €24 million. What I cannot understand is, the ESB is a very strong company, financially.

We have recently heard - I welcome this publicly because I think it is a good move - the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, announce to much fanfare that the Government was going to invest heavily in initiatives to maximise employment and revitalise local economies in rural areas. This announcement came after much pressure from rural Deputies like myself, particularly from the Minister's own rural backbench Deputies. Bord na Móna is a typical example of a rural-based company. It is the only opportunity for employment in the areas in which it functions. Mr. Horgan is appointed by the Government and has a direct link to his line Minister. I am surprised to hear him say that he has not really got anywhere with carbon tax, apart from the normal submissions he would make to the Minister. There is a budget coming up again and every lobby group in the country will be making submissions to the Minister. Mr. Horgan should go through his line Minister to inform the Government of the consequences of its action. The opportunity exists for him to do so now in advance of this budget, and he should avail of it and put his case very strongly. He will not just be representing his board, he will be representing the views of the workforce. Two issues I feel have to be addressed are the PSO and biomass.

We are told biomass briquettes are the way forward and Bord na Móna has its biomass project. Will the biomass be available for the production of briquettes or will it be directed to the peat power plants? Has Bord na Móna got a five-year plan for the Littleton briquette factory? I come from a place called Thurles, and over the years we have suffered in that we have lost all our manufacturing industry in that area. One time we had four sugar factories, but Thurles lost out and eventually all four closed. We have two briquette factories now, Derrinlough and Littleton, and there is a concern that there is a hidden agenda. The two may become one and eventually, the one may not exist. I would like an assurance today on the future of Littleton briquette factory.

Mr. Horgan used what I would consider to be labour commission lingo on how Bord na Móna is managing the transition and savage cuts that are taking place. He says a framework and a protocol have been put in place and that the company is carefully managing this exercise. I am not one to exaggerate and am normally quite calm and measured in what I say. Although I do not go seeking to meet with the workforce in Littleton, they have come to me. I have received letters addressed to myself and copied to the chief executive, Ms Lynch and others within the company. I have no intention of putting that correspondence into the public domain but I hope Bord na Móna has a mechanism within the company to deal with it adequately. Some of the content of those letters and messages is frightening and I sincerely hope that not even an element of it is true or accurate.

I would describe Bord na Móna's situation as being in crisis. In a time of crisis, resolute action and a plan are needed. Having met practically all of the membership of the Bord na Móna workforce in the Littleton-Templetuohy area, either collectively or individually, some of them in my office without the knowledge of their colleagues, there is disillusionment, frustration, anger and huge resentment building up against the management. People feel the management's method of implementing cuts and cost saving measures is harsh and inhuman - this is why I am talking about this lingo of "framework" and "protocols". What we are looking for here is basic decency in terms of how the management deals with people who are working with Bord na Móna for 25 years. The workforce of Bord na Móna has been dedicated, committed and loyal to the company. We never had this kind of difficulty with industrial disputes; I have never seen such a reaction in my 28 years in politics from the company's workforce. The management needs to face up to the reality that it, starting with the chairman, has lost the confidence of its workforce. It needs to address this as a matter of urgency.

Part of the reason this confidence has been lost is that the workforce does not trust management to have a plan that is achievable, has proper objectives and can deliver sustainable jobs and safeguard the future in these plants.

There is a perception among the workforce that management has squandered money in many of its investments. Its core business has always been the peat plants. It has taken its eye off the ball. The buzzword is diversification and I understand as a commercial person and a businessman why people have to diversify. However, management must hold sight of what its core business is. It is still making €50 million profit out of its core business at a time when it has squandered millions on waste management, made bad investments and lost out heavily, spent a fortune on wind farms for which I am not sure what the dividend will be. From my understanding, Bord na Móna has also spent tens of millions on consultancy fees and reports, the end product of which nobody seems to know. Showing its lack of political astuteness, it spent a fortune bidding for the Irish Water franchise, lost out on it and dug a big hole in its balance sheet in preparing for it. I would have thought somebody in the Government or in Bord na Móna would have realised halfway through that process that the company was not going to get it and that it should desist from it. That is the perception among the company's workforce at the moment. The management has lost touch in respect of the kind of expenditure it has in seeking diversification projects that have been expensive.

I have no problem supporting a management with a difficult job to do and I will support the management of the company. However, it needs to communicate its message a lot better. I do not believe that communicating through the Labour Relations Commission is the way to do it. Why do we have to step away from the old procedures that always worked within Bord na Móna? The company now has ten issues at the LRC, of which Mr. Horgan is a former chairman.

I am sure Mr. Horgan, when he was chairman of the Labour Court, did not like having his door opened every other day to deal with spurious claims and issues that should have been resolved locally. One would expect many issues to be resolved long before they reach the Labour Court. The majority of the issues arising in Bord na Móna should have been dealt with by the company's management. I apologise to the Chairman for taking such a long time but we have reached a crossroads in respect of the future direction of Bord na Móna. We need some satisfactory answers and the company needs a solid plan for the future.