Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 December 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Supporting a Just Transition: Discussion (Resumed)

Photo of Michael FitzmauriceMichael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish Kieran the best of luck in his new job. I have been listening to him for a while and I appreciate someone who talks straight and calls it like it is. I will give it to him straight. In my opinion this has come out of the blue for Deputies and the workers. I shall give Mr. Mulvey the background. We were brought in one year ago and told of this just transition over seven or eight years to 2025 or 2027. Currently there is mistrust by the workers and many politicians with what has gone on. This has come like a bolt from the blue and has been brought forward by five or six years. Mr. Mulvey spoke about Bord na Móna, which is looking at a fish project and herbs and so on, but these are six or seven years away to be quite frank. Some 300 to 400 Bord na Móna workers have been already thrown on the scrap heap and have been given redundancy. The coal yards in Galway and Sligo are where the people also have mistrust. They took the redundancy as they had no other choice.

Going back to Seán Lemass's time and Shannon Airport, is Mr. Mulvey prepared to look for something in those areas that would give a tax incentive to try to bring in businesses to set up? Is Mr. Mulvey prepared to look for that? Can Mr. Mulvey get agencies such as Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland to have a person strategically positioned who will deal with the areas? In my tally, while Galway and Roscommon gave the peat across to the stations at Shannonbridge and Lanesborough, I believe that eight counties will be affected by this. Mr. Mulvey referred to a fund but I ask him to write down one name.

I have fought with the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, over the years but there are people in the service who have done re-wetting such as Jack McCauley. Mr. Mulvey referred to re-wetting giving X amount of jobs, and we would have been involved with the NPWS on this previously. The fund of €5 million will cover about 17 diggers for 240 days, along with the people who need to do the drawings and the engineers. Figures are being kicked out there at the moment. I am aware that Mr. Mulvey is just starting to look into it. He has spoken also of retrofitting and he rightly pointed out that people must first get trained in retrofitting. If I am a sub-contractor in Donegal or in Cork, however, and if I am keener than anybody else for the work then I will get that job. There is also a question mark over Bord na Móna's €5 million. Has that work to go out to public tender? If so, then I and my one digger - for example - would be more efficient. Does Mr. Mulvey understand this, or else there is no point in saying that this fund would be available?

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