Ms Patricia King:

When I spoke to the director general of the WRC, he said that he wanted this to happen efficiently and quickly. He notified the Department. He had several conversations with officials in the Department. He confirmed in correspondence that he is prepared to put the necessary structures in place. By the way, those structures are not elaborate.

I would like to pick up on the point about future employment. If all of the necessary stakeholders are in the forum, an effort can be made to identify alternative work and deal with the issues raised by the Deputy. If these conversations take place at a plausible forum, those involved can contact the main shareholder on behalf of the State to say that investment is needed. Such a request would not be made on the basis of dud proposals. It would emerge from a forum that is not built on sand, but that is a serious attempt to get a just transition. That raises the question of why Bord na Móna will not do this. I suspect it has no interest in it at all.