Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I move amendment No. 158:

In page 66, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following:

“PART 6

REPORTS

Report on options for enhancement of Employment Investment Incentive relief in Midlands Peat Region

55. The Minister shall, within 90 days of the passing of this Act, publish a report on options for the enhancement of the Employment Investment Incentive relief in the Midlands Peat Region for businesses established at Bord na Móna works in— (a) County Galway at—

(i) Clonfert, Ballinasloe, and

(ii) Derryfadda/Ahascragh, Ballinasloe,

(b) County Kildare at Ballydermot, Rathangan,

(c) County Laois at—

(i) Clonsast, Portarlington, and

(ii) Cuil na Mona, Portlaoise,

(d) County Longford at Mountdillon, Lanesborough,

(e) County Offaly at—

(i) Ballycon,

(ii) Bellair, Ballycumber,

(iii) Blackwater,

(iv) Blackwater, Shannonbridge,

(v) Boora, Leabeg, Tullamore,

(vi)Croghan, Mt. Lucas,

(vii) Derringlough,

(viii) Lemonaghan, Ferbane, and

(ix) Monietta, Killeigh, Tullamore,

(f) County Roscommon at—

(i) Ballyglass, and

(ii) Conburren, Athlone,

(g) County Tipperary at Littleton, and

(h) County Westmeath at—

(i) Cuil na Gun, Coole, Mullingar, and

(ii) Derrygreenagh, Rochfordbridge.”.

This amendment is in my name and those of my colleagues from across the midland counties. This matter is of interest to every Deputy on every side of the House. There is unanimous support from both Government and Opposition Deputies right across the midlands for the principle behind what I am proposing here. Within the next few weeks, both Lanesboro and Shannonbridge power stations will shut down for the last time. It is the end of an era for peat production and employment right across the midland counties.

Twelve months ago we had a debate on the need to put proactive supports in place in the midlands. During the debate on last year's Finance Bill, I tabled these amendments on Report Stage and they were rejected. The difficulty is that very little progress has been made in the past 12 months. Kieran Mulvey, who was appointed as the just transition commissioner by the Government, has done an exceptional job and has been very open and frank with communities. He has made very clear recommendations but, disappointingly, they have not been followed through on by the Government. We had a very small window and when the just transition commissioner made recommendations, they had to be acted upon.

One of the recommendations was that changes be sought to the EU state aid rules. It is up to the Minister to seek that flexibility. It is not just here in Ireland that it is needed but right across the coal regions of the EU. Peat in Ireland is very similar to coal in most continental European countries. The European Committee of the Regions produced a report earlier this year that specifically highlighted the need to introduce flexibility in EU state aid rules in order that the State, its agencies and local authorities could directly invest in community projects. There is no point in the Government, through the carbon funds, the just transition commissioner and Ministers encouraging communities to think big if there is no mechanism to access the funding needed.

Some funding has been given to communities through the carbon taxes. Ballyforan in County Roscommon received €100,000, which was very welcome. Ballyforan straddles the border between Roscommon and Galway and is a rural community. It will lose one of the Bord na Móna workshops down the road from it and that is having a big impact on employment there. Historically, there were hundreds of jobs in that community between Bord na Móna and Gowla farm but over time they have diminished and now we will see the final closure of that workshop. The people of the town applied to the just transition fund and were successful in accessing funding to draw up a plan for their community. They have a lot of very good, innovative ideas. However, they do not have the 10% in funding that is required to match what they received and they have no mechanism to raise it at the moment because of Covid-19. They have turned to the local authority and it has said it is not in a position to help. As a result, the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications is breaking up that grant into smaller pieces but these people still have to beg, borrow and steal to try to get the co-funding aspect.

This community is acknowledging that there is a problem and rather than going out onto the streets and protesting or putting their hands in their pockets and saying there is nothing they can do about it, these people have proactively rolled up their sleeves and come forward with innovative ideas for the just transition fund. Those ideas have been acknowledged but they cannot get the project off the ground because of that co-funding issue. That is just one example but this is becoming a barrier right across the midland counties. There are barriers, under state aid rules, to the State supporting this just transition where communities are coming up to the mark. In fairness, each and every community within my constituency and the bordering areas is taking a proactive approach to this and is looking at it as a potential opportunity to reconfigure the local economy but someone has to meet them halfway.

The other side of this is that we must put incentives in place for the private sector to come on board. That is the purpose of this amendment and amendment No. 159, to which I will speak later. They address the 20 Bord na Móna workshops across the midland counties, from east Galway over to Kildare, down to Tipperary and up to north Westmeath, which will be mothballed by the end of this year. I am seeking some type of specific incentive to encourage private sector investment in each of those sites. They have the advantage in that they have the three-phase electricity supply that would be needed. They are very large sites and there are very large sheds available that can be used for light engineering works and so forth. The skill sets are also available through the employees who would have worked in those workshops with Bord na Móna. We need private sector companies to look at those locations.

The reality is that the midlands has been the poor relation in terms of investment. In general, a lot of private sector investment goes to the seaboards, the cities and the urban areas around our island and not to the midland counties. We have always been the poor relation in that regard, whether in foreign direct investment or indigenous investment. I am asking that we put an incentive, or a focused, targeted extension system, in place for 20 specific sites in the midland counties to invite the private sector to come and look at these sites. These sites can deliver on businesses' objectives, the Government will actively support them in coming there and they have the local workforce. Long-term sustainable jobs can be created at these locations.

It is frustrating that everyone is talking about the just transition and the move from brown to green. When I served as a Minister, I fully supported that but the intention was for that transition to happen over a ten-year period and that was also the Minister for Finance's intention when we discussed this. Now it will happen over a 12-month period. The mechanisms of Government have not reacted in the same manner in which the decisions have been taken to shut down these facilities. It is vitally important, therefore, that a targeted, focused scheme is in place to encourage investment in this area. It is not just on the industrial side. In fairness to some of the State agencies, they are beginning to look at how we can support the midland counties. In the next few weeks Fáilte Ireland will publish its River Shannon master plan, which will hopefully be used as a blueprint to develop tourism along the Shannon corridor.

It will be producing another master plan for the Beara-Breifne Way, which will deal with another aspect, and a corridor across the midland counties and, specifically, the communities that have been affected by the decision of the ESB and Bord na Móna.

However, Government decisions fail to recognise the unique aspects of the midland region. I can give a practical example, and it is one I raised with the Minister last July with regard to the stay-and-spend initiative. Everyone welcomes the principle and core objective of what the Minister was doing in that regard, and I accept that it has not got off the ground because of lockdown. Perhaps the Minister can tell me now or later today what was the projected spend or cost to the Exchequer for the stay-and-spend scheme this year and what the projected spend for the early part of next year would be. That will give us an idea of what we were looking at spending. As I told the Minister previously, that scheme deliberately discriminated against the midland counties. For example, under the scheme, people can only use Fáilte Ireland-approved accommodation. There are 155 bed and breakfast units in County Kerry registered with Fáilte Ireland. There are 15 in County Westmeath, ten in County Roscommon, nine in County Offaly, three in County Longford and five in County Laois. Straight away, the structure of the stay-and-spend scheme and the requirement to use only Fáilte Ireland-approved accommodation meant that it did not apply in real terms to the midland counties. If one looks at hotels or any other benchmark relating to the scheme, we lost out.

Proportionately, we do not have the same scale of tourism across the midlands, so we are always going to be at a disadvantage. The reality is that tourism probably had less of an impact in our region than it did in other regions which have a much better developed tourism sector. However, there was a golden opportunity here to bring people to our region. It is within an hour's commute from the city of Dublin. People did not have to travel long distances and it would have been an ideal location for short breaks, but when the structures were designed they discriminated against our region. I do not believe that was deliberate, but that is the practical outcome.

My difficulty is that while the Government acknowledges that there is a challenge across the midland counties and has put a just transition commissioner in place, when it comes to practical decisions it is not discriminating in favour of the midland counties, which is the opposite of the announcement originally made when the decision was made by the ESB. The announcement was that in all Government schemes consideration and weighting would be given to applications coming from midland counties and midland communities that were directly impacted by the closure of the ESB and Bord na Móna facilities across the midlands. That is not happening. That is why it is imperative that we put into legislation the specific 20 Bord na Móna workshop sites distributed across the seven midland counties and state that we want to see investment come to those locations.