Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 13 November 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Third Report of the Citizens' Assembly: Discussion (Resumed)

3:00 pm

Mr. Tom Donnellan:

Yes, and we are working with those people and the group of unions. If everyone in an area does not want to take voluntary redundancy, we are determining whether we can relocate them. We are trying to do this in a fair and measured way but we do not have all the answers. I do not want to dress it up as if this is all fine and dandy because it is not. We are talking about more than 400 people losing their jobs, which is the harsh reality of decarbonisation hitting our door. As we develop these medium to long-term jobs, the Deputy is correct that they might or might not work, but we are going to give it our best shot. If they work, we can deploy them in many areas. First, we need to establish if we can get things on a commercially viable footing. We are doing our pilots and trials and if they work, we can decide where they go.