Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for their contributions. As a recent member of Offaly County Council, this was an issue that we discussed inside and outside the chamber. I live in north Offaly, which is very much in the heartland of these issues. The job losses from the peat and energy generation sectors are catastrophic for the area. If similar levels of jobs were to be lost in a tech centre in Dublin, the country would be in meltdown. Unfortunately, I do not get that sense of urgency generally about these losses.

While the figures on job creation in the midlands over the past decade have been positive, I would argue that some parts of Offaly and the wider midlands never came out of the recession. The exodus of commuters from towns like Edenderry and Portarlington is vast. They are all travelling to Dublin for their jobs. The midlands face unique challenges, but we must look to and learn from the countries and regions that have transitioned successfully. We must also learn from the mistakes of other areas that have not done this well.

We obviously really need to fast-track this. We are down to months and years at this stage. If we do not get this right, we are going to run the risk of turning the midlands into the rust belt of Ireland. I would like to address a couple of questions to the midlands transition team, probably to Ms Delaney. Does she feel that the challenges faced with adopting a just transition from a local authority perspective would be facilitated in some way with some local government reform? As Ms Delaney will be well aware, we are one of the most poorly funded and supported local governments in Europe. If so, what provisions does she think should be put in place or what type of reform would she consider necessary? It may have been answered already and apologies if it has, but I would be interested to know the age profile across the board for the Bord na Móna and ESB workers and also the age profile of the 500 people who will have exited by 2019 through the voluntary redundancy option since 2018.

I never get a figure from the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation of the number of jobs created from aquaculture and herbs and all of these developments within the Bord na Móna lands at present. If the Department could provide that that would be great. Also, have there been any discussions within the Department regarding the cessation of peat extraction for horticultural purposes? That is a vast amount which has an environmental impact both in terms of peat and carbon loss.