Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Mulvey. The committee felt strongly that there should be a just transition commissioner. My party, Sinn Féin, would have argued for it to be established on a permanent basis and resourced. Deputy Cullinane covered that and I will not go back over it.

We are trying to conduct a ten-year catch-up of what is happening and there are a few things I wanted to say to Mr. Mulvey. The issue of the unions has been laid on strong. I have met the management of Bord na Móna on a number of occasions on this. I met the management team for two and a half hours recently on this issue and I am aware that it is trying to do a number of things. However, there is that view - I put it to them - about the unionising of the company. Unfortunately, the evidence of what has happened with some of the subsidiaries that they have set up would indicate that. However, I welcome the fact that they are trying to diversify. They have a history of diversifying into waste management and into a number of other areas. At one stage, they even made septic tanks.

There are a number of big semi-State companies here. There is Coillte, Bord na Móna and ESB. The point I am trying to communicate to Mr. Mulvey is that the three of these have a significant role. I am a former employee of Bord na Móna. All my family worked in Bord na Móna for a number of generations.

The midlands have been the power generation hub of the country for a long time. They can be again with renewable energy. They needs biomass. We are bringing it from South America and Mr. Tom Donnellan told me the last day I was with him that there is even some coming from Russia. We need biomass. We need to move into biogas. We need to move into solar. We need to move into the full range of renewables. We have the sites.

Mr. Mulvey mentioned already about the sites, and he is correct. There are sites. I do not want to see jackdaws flying in and out of them and bushes and thistles growing up around and within the car parks of the sites that are there. Along with the landmass and the bogs, these can be used for carbon sequestration. I wanted to emphasise that point to Mr. Mulvey. However, that means Government action now in terms of getting a biomass supply chain in place. That involves Coillte. It involves the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. It involves Bord na Móna cutaway bogs. It involves the ESB. There needs to be buy-in. My sense of it is that the ESB has not yet entered this game. It is a bigger company. The ESB has more resources than Bord na Móna, but from meeting the different management groups, it has not yet entered this game.

On the just transition, the just transition team is in Tullamore in Offaly. Offaly will be part of the constituency after the election and I have a considerable interest in it. I deal with people from Offaly every day of the week. Laois has lost 300 Bord na Móna jobs gradually. There was no just transition there. There are large sites in Laois belonging to Bord na Móna. There is the Cúil na Móna plant sitting on the crossroads of the M7-N80 and the main railway line. In fact, a branch of the railway line goes into the old Cúil na Móna factory. That is why it was built on that site. There has been nothing done there in terms of a just transition or replacement jobs. What I am saying strongly to Mr. Mulvey, and I have said to the Minister and his predecessors, is that Laois must be included in the just transition. I recognise that this is a double whammy for Offaly. It is a considerable hit for Offaly. Laois has been transitioning out of it over the past 20 years. I realise that the impact is not as great but it has had an impact. Mountrath has one of the lowest incomes per head of population in the country because many people there used to work in Bord na Móna, and the effects of that going have been seen there.

The other point I wanted to make to Mr. Mulvey is about training. We have a good education and training board, Laois and Offaly Education and Training Board, under Mr. Joe Cunningham. I am not arguing with that. Bord na Móna and the ESB turned out good apprenticeships over the years. Mr. Mulvey mentioned that we need the skills for retrofitting. We also need skills for generating new energy and the new technology there. With Bord na Móna and the ESB, there is a history that needs to be utilised. I suggest the centre at Mount Lucas in Offaly, which is already being used as a training centre, be made a national training centre for renewable energy, retrofitting and energy conservation technology.