Mr. Tom Donnellan:

There are some jobs in maintenance and servicing of the power plants, etc., not many, but good high-quality jobs. In the past year, we have hired 20 software engineers for the company we have just bought, which Mr. Reilly mentioned and which does 50% of electricity exchange. Our resource renewable business is employing 300 people and, as we move up the value chain on that, it will probably get up to 400 or 500. The long-term jobs which we are investing in are in the aquaculture and the herb-based business. They are low-carbon jobs in growth areas.

We have done some research on them. We will try to get them to a business case and do our damnedest to ensure they create 500 and more jobs in the medium to long term. We are committed to that because our remit is not simply to be a commercial semi-State. From day one, it has included the requirement to be a creator of jobs in the midlands. We take that very seriously. If we do not do it, we will have failed. If we do not do it, decarbonisation will be seen negatively. It will appear that the people in the midlands and Bord na Móna are carrying the brunt and that the company has not reinvented itself. Our daily prayer, to use that expression, is "How are we going to create jobs?" We have our best people on that working with Enterprise Ireland, the IDA and Bord Iascaigh Mhara on how to do it.