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

I thank Deputy Sherlock for sharing time.

The Minister, Deputy Bruton, will be well aware that some 12 to 18 months ago Bord na Móna invited all public representatives to meet it, especially those from the rural areas who are involved in the Bord na Móna areas, so that Bord na Móna could show the lovely, glossy booklet it had done out, probably at great expense, about the just transition that was to happen between 2018 and 2030. This included the plan that guys who had worked on the bogs and at the peat would be ceasing around 2027 and then there would be two years after that for burning peat. A lot has changed since then. There was talk of them going into selling herbs for medicine, or going into fish farming, and trying out so many things that it was going to be an eight to nine-year process that would create employment. Everything looked lovely and we all swallowed it and said "Happy days". Then we look back at what has happened over the past four years while this Government has been in power. The answer to the just transition in Donnelly's coal yard in Galway, which was controlled by Bord na Móna, was redundancies, and to let them off. The next phase we came to was the workers in Sligo where the coal came in. The just transition was redundancies and let them off. For people in Derryfadda or Mountdillion, or in parts of the midlands where the works have gone, the just transition once again has been, with this lovely magazine type document, to let them off, give them redundancy and head for the hills. That is it. If this is the way we are going to treat people we should be ashamed of ourselves.

First, why are we not standing up? Regardless of whether it is An Bord Pleanála or anybody else, who is calling the shots in this country with regard to legislation and making sure there is such a thing as a just transition for the 1,400 or 1,500 workers currently? We must also remember that those small towns have shops and businesses that rely on it. Unfortunately, we seem to be throwing in the towel and saying that we are going to put a few quid towards this, that and the other. There are proposals around retrofitting houses, which are great and nobody has a problem with retrofitting houses but let nobody go telling. I have seen it first hand during the debacle on the special areas of conservation, SACs, when we talked about re-wetting bogs. The reality is that someone in Antrim, Cork or Donegal, regardless of where they are from, can compete for that work. It does not mean that somebody from the midlands will get it, unfortunately, under the procurement process. I have seen this happen first hand when things were said to people about re-wetting bogs but it did not work out. This €5 million fund is being traipsed out with regard to re-wetting bogs. I can tell the House that I have worked in this area. Before anyone knew what re-wetting bogs was, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Turf Cutters and Contractors Association, TCCA had done some 1,800 hectares. Having gone through all of the figures over the past three to four years, and on the best advice, €5 million will be 17 diggers and 17 people up on a machine when they have to use the liners, for 240 days. I do not know who is giving this tripe about 300 or 400 jobs - perhaps it is based on going back to using shovels - but if they use machines that is the amount of time the funding would cover.

We are looking at a Bord na Móna that brought in a shipload of stuff from South Africa that could not be used. This is a company that bought a business in England that went wrong. On top of the 1,600 Bord na Móna workers there are a further 2,000 horticulture jobs in the midlands. Whether we like it or not we need to make sure we give the just transition. Yes, by all means put in for funding for new types of work. Yes, by all means help in every way in that regard. There is a bottom line, however, and growing biomass incentives in the midlands, for those people who have done that, was unfortunately not viable, whether we like it or not. We need to make sure that we do not just drop the hatchet on those people straight away or that they end up with the same story as the people in Donnelly's coal yard or those people in Derryfadda and others who have seen redundancy as the only answer so far.

As politicians we have to stand up and say if we are doing a just transition it is from now until 2025. Everyone bought into that. Let no-one say that they did not buy into it. Perhaps we as legislators have to create a derogation or some legislation to get over the hump in the likes of An Bord Pleanála. Unfortunately there is no drop of a hat solution in a lot of those areas whereby one could solve it overnight.

On re-wetting bogs, there is one thing that needs to be understood: it is the machinery that does most of this work and liners are involved. Although rail lines are to be picked up, whoever is talking about the works or the number of people involved needs to sit down and talk with the National Parks and Wildlife Service, not me. This is not coming from me. Let them go through what has been done already, which will give the facts around the number of jobs, rather than we in here doing it. There is misinformation going out to workers who are in a desperate situation not knowing their future. We should stand up and be counted for them.

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