Ms Anna Marie Delaney:

First, on the commuters issue that Senator Hackett mentioned, I mentioned earlier the midlands network of co-working facilities that has been established. That is to provide hot-desking to enable one or two days a week working within the local region for people who might be commuting; it is an opportunity and we are linking in with a number of companies in Dublin to try to facilitate that process. The age profile in our experience to date and the information that we have is mixed, but Bord na Móna might be better placed to give that full information to us. That is something to perhaps ask them next week as well; that will be a challenge as for the local just transition commissioner and the fund.

On our own financial position and the financial position of a number of counties in the midlands region, I would recommend a review of the local government reforms for finance. We have not had an increase in the Local Government Fund since 2014. The impact of the rates base there and the hit from the Shannonbridge closure will certainly warrant a full review of the services within our own local authority area. We would be engaging with the Department and the just transition commissioner on the supply of resources and supports to the area. In the midlands region, the local authorities are all represented including Roscommon and Kildare. It is not just the midlands counties that are represented on the regional transition team. We have expanded to the other areas as well. The agencies have been working very significantly on reskilling and retraining together with Athlone IT, the regional skills forum and the ETBs across the region. The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection has also been very engaged on outreach to workers on reskilling and retraining and have provided tremendous support across the board.