Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister stated on Committee Stage last week that the purpose of the amendment is to facilitate investment in Bord na Móna projects.

I understand that is the basis for this amendment. On that basis, I will be supporting the amendment. I want to address the purpose of the amendment, which is to facilitate the employment of Bord na Móna staff to work on the cutaway bogs across the midland counties. I commend that provision, which I asked this time last year to be included in the climate action fund. I thank the Minister, his predecessor, Deputy Bruton, and the officials in the Department for taking that specific proposal on board. The decision not to have a harvest this year is having a significant detrimental impact on many of the seasonal and permanent staff in Bord na Móna across east Galway, Roscommon, Longford, Westmeath, Laois and Offaly. Many of them are very dependent on that seasonal work and many businesses across the midlands are dependent on that. I would like if the Minister could respond to me and provide some clarity to the employees in Bord na Móna who are in limbo and have been for the last number of months. Some of them are drawing the pandemic unemployment payment, some are drawing the wage subsidy scheme through Bord na Móna and some are seasonal staff who were not called back this year and do not know whether they will get any work. They are getting no financial support whatsoever even though their jobs are in limbo. What is most frustrating for the employees in Bord na Móna is that they have been given no information from Government or Bord na Móna as to what is happening in the short to medium term in respect of employment. I hope when the Minister responds that he will provide some clarity on that.

I would also be grateful if the Minister could look into a specific issue for me. I refer to the perverse situation where we the taxpayers are borrowing money to fund the pandemic unemployment payment and wage subsidy scheme within Bord na Móna for staff who have applied for the voluntary early retirement scheme. They are looking for redundancy but Bord na Móna will not let them out to retire, yet they are receiving a subsidy from the State where there is no employment for them at present. Surely it makes sense to let those staff who want to retire out the door and to try to secure as much employment as possible for the staff who are left within the company. I think it is a public scandal that this is happening and I plead with the Minister to intervene.

On the specific provision of the amendment, as the Minister said, its purpose is to look at projects where there may not be an economic dividend or it may not win purely based on the climate impact. As the Minister knows, the purpose of that is to put money into Bord na Móna to provide employment for its staff. I am led to believe that the plans that are currently being drafted by Bord na Móna to access this climate action fund are very heavy on capital and not so heavy in terms of employment. That is completely unacceptable. It was never my purpose when I was looking for this provision to be put in the legislation. It was never the purpose of the climate action fund to look purely at capital investment. I am told that the plans being drawn up are over-engineered and insufficiently labour intensive, when the Minister and I know very well that it must be the other way around. While the Minister is not going to look for the same provisions in terms of the criteria regarding the funding he would give to Bord na Móna, I urge him to ensure that he gets independent advice to ensure that whatever work is carried out is as labour intensive as possible and ensures as much employment for the seasonal staff as is possible.

The focus needs to be on rehabilitation of the bogs in the first instance and, second, providing public access through those bogs. Last Sunday I had the opportunity to cycle from Ballinasloe to Shannonbridge through the bog just south of the town of Ballinasloe, along the existing railway works line. It would be great if we had a proper walkway and cycleway through that bog from Ballinasloe right through to Shannonbridge. The same is true in many of the other bogs across the midlands. There are very detailed proposals coming forward about opening up the Mount Dillon bog complex in Roscommon and Longford for public access. We should be getting Bord na Móna staff to do that work. It is imperative that the funding that is made available through the climate action fund is for labour intensive work for that specific purpose and I hope the Minister will ensure that happens.

We need to take the milled peat off these bogs urgently. In the last fortnight I was on the road between Ballydangan and Cloonfad going past the bogs at Clonbern. There was a brown cloud in the sky of milled peat which is on those bogs at the moment. It is causing environmental problems across communities in that area. That peat cannot be left on those bogs. It must be removed. I do not want the situation repeated that happened in Littleton, where milled peat was bulldozed into the drains. If that were to happen across the midland bogs, it would cause an environmental catastrophe. The milled peat would run from the drains into the River Suck and the River Shannon, compounding an already difficult environmental situation in those rivers as well as compounding the flooding problems we have within their catchments. I want an assurance from the Minister that some mechanism will be found to ensure that the peat is taken off those bogs and burned in Lanesborough and Shannonbridge for power generation before the ground conditions deteriorate later in the year.

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