Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The future of the Labour movement will go hand in hand with the environmental movement. I mean green is the new red and red is the new green. Senator Grace O'Sullivan has commended some of the work that has been done. Likewise, I thank Mr. David Joyce for the work that he did, and that we did together, at the climate gathering in terms of a series of sessions where we considered this issue over recent years. He brought over the head of the International Trade Unions Movement who said that it is the absolute truth that there are no jobs on a dead planet and we must work together on this.

I appreciate the commentary by the witnesses on our just transition commission. Do they agree that the main structure we seek is a mediation service? I mean an independently fully resourced and skilled team who can be brought in and used when areas are designated to be in need of a specific just transition plan. I do not have a long tradition in the negotiating process. However, I know that the mediation process is not binding. I know that it is fully State resourced and has all of the expertise that we can marshal to provide a mediation service between workers, employers and communities in the just transition process. Do the witnesses think that structure is the right approach in terms of establishing a just transition commission to assist in this process?

I will ask all my three questions and the witnesses can answer them together. I agree very much with Mr. Dullaghan when he said that the State will have to lead a lot of this work. We are going to back to our future in terms of State leadership unlike the electrification of our country. I was very disappointed that Bord na Móna, in its new strategy, did not see the opportunity I see that the company must have in the €50 billion project to retrofit buildings, which we need to do in the next ten, 15 or 20 years. I see Bord na Móna having a role in that. Rather than laying off people in Newbridge, Bord na Móna will have to employ hundreds of additional people in Newbridge to set up apprenticeships for 1,000 carpenters, 1,000 heating engineers, 1,000 plumbers and 1,000 glaziers to manage its biggest and most important project. If we can go back to Bord na Móna and say, "rather than excluding that from your option of menus and just going with the options that you have set out, go big in terms of the State showing that we can be brilliant at creating an apprenticeship system that gives the youth of the midlands a future." Do the witnesses agree with such a strategy option?

Engagement on this should be a continuation of the record that we also have in partnership. To me, the partnership process has served this country well. The governance structure of this initiative will see it centred around the Taoiseach's office. In other words, Mr. Martin Fraser, Secretary General, Department of the Taoiseach and the Secretary General for the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment would set the sights of the Action Plan for Jobs at the core of the State. The unions have a good connection with the Department of the Taoiseach through the partnership process. Does such a governance structure make sense to the witnesses? I refer to where the central co-ordination of this exercise takes place.