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

I fully agree with Mr. Boland that this has to be community-centred. It is estimated there are 20,000 jobs in retrofitting. I think there will be a similar number of jobs in re-wetting bogs, which Bord na Móna workers have real skills in. There may be a similar number of jobs in forestry. Going back to what I was saying earlier on, we are doing none of the training for this. We have none of the apprenticeships and none of the institutes of technology is doing it. We have only one forestry class coming out. There are no apprenticeships coming in the craft of retrofitting.

I was thrilled to hear about the one in Wexford.

On the basis of being upfront and straight, it is clear from the recent court case that there is no legal planning permission for any industrial peat extraction. The application to have industrial peat extraction made exempt was turned down by the courts. All of the existing industrial peat extraction is illegal and could end tomorrow. On the need for scale and an urgent response, we should let people know that what is taking place is not legal and could legally be stopped at any moment. We need to ramp up our engagement with the communities on that scale of challenge.