Ms Anna Marie Delaney:

On the announcement last Friday about 2020, we had expected that there would be a 15-year transition period and we were talking about 2030 initially. Peat harvesting is finishing now at the end of 2020, so we really have 13 months to try to transition, and that is a challenge. It is to be hoped the Government funding supports that have been put in place under budget 2020 and the just transition fund will provide some of the supports to the SMEs that will assist with the transition period that we have.

Regarding the supports to business itself, our local enterprise offices are engaging with the various agencies about community supports. In addition, in terms of job creation opportunities, the local authority would be facilitating that role through our local enterprise offices across the region. All of them are engaged in it, as well as the business support units that we have and also through our local development companies to try to develop social enterprise in some of those areas. We would expect that the just transition fund would assist with a number of the supports and that the just transition commissioner would assist and engage with us on how that might be rolled out and how it might work. We are waiting to get some details on that. The commissioner was just announced on Friday. We have invited him to our next meeting of the transition team.

With regard to the rates base for the local authorities, it is a very significant hit for both Offaly and Longford county councils.

The Shannonbridge station pays Offaly County Council €2.8 million per annum in rates. The loss of that will be a significant hit to the services and supports in the area. We will engage with the commissioner and the Department about the supports and resources that may need to be put in place. The Lough Ree station in Lanesborough is worth €1.2 million in rates to Longford County Council. Losing that will also be a significant hit to the council's books. We will engage in the same process there and through the transition team. I will now ask Mr. Boland to comment on training and reskilling.