Mr. John Reilly:

Bord na Móna has been involved in the transition programme, going back to when we put the first morsel of biomass into the Edenderry power station in 2008, irrespective of the rights or wrongs of it. We had begun to recognise the need to decarbonise and, thus, reduce our carbon footprint a decade ago. The transition has been going on since then. Mr. Donnellan made a relevant point. It is not just Bord na Móna and companies like it that are grappling with this. Society is grappling with this. The Deputy and I are grappling with it.

The manifestation of the reality of the challenge that faces us has only come about in recent months. We are now getting down to the nitty-gritty of doing the right thing and what we have to do. The impact on jobs will be significant. It is a matter of how we manage that. We could switch the light off in the morning and walk away, which would create lots of problems. We think we have been positioning ourselves from a diversification perspective so that today more than 50% of Bord na Móna's income and revenue stream comes from areas that are not related to our core peat activity. We had to get that piece of the jigsaw in place first. We are now at the point where we do not have to shut down and turn the lights off and we are beginning to aggressively move forward in respect of the core transition activity, which is to move away from peat production, something that has served the company and the State well for 80 years. We have realised, however, over the past decade or so that the end is coming and the question is how to manage that transition and that end. It is not going to be easy. We do not have all the answers. First and foremost, we have an obligation to our staff and the communities we serve and the plan we have put in place is to try to accelerate that programme.