Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Communities in west Clare are shocked by the ESB's recent announcement that it will cut about 100 full-time positions at Moneypoint power station. We recognise that Moneypoint's days as a coal-burning facility are numbered. There is a date in 2025 by which coal will no longer be burned. That is in line with our climate change commitments and is widely accepted in the community. However, it was expected that there would be a comprehensive plan to assist the communities most affected and to assist the workforce in transitioning away from this carbon-intensive activity. Lessons need to be learned from events in other parts of the world where significant change has taken place and in the absence of government intervention, communities have effectively been dismantled. I have no doubt that the directly-employed workers will receive compensation from the ESB, but the wider community will be really adversely affected. There is a lot of support employment there. Contractors have already been let go. Nobody is talking about them. For a wage pool of that size to be taken out of west Clare represents utter devastation.

I thought the ESB and the Department would engage more fully. We spent we spent the last several months addressing climate change issues in the Joint Committee on Climate Action. A key aspect of the report which was presented to the Government was a requirement for it to put a plan of action in place for places like Moneypoint or the midlands, where the extraction of peat will not happen any more. We have recommended the establishment of a task force to manage a just transition. However, the Government's action plan includes none of these commitments. It seems to allow for job losses and abrupt closures instead of taking a planned approach to the changes required by our environmental commitments. The ESB must engage with the Department. Along with others, Deputy Carey and I had an opportunity to meet representatives of the ESB today. Sadly the ESB does not see itself as having a role as part of a just transition. It looks at this solely in economic terms. That is not good enough for the communities and people who will be most affected by this.

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