Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I fully support this motion on fuel poverty and am delighted to speak on the matter. It is particularly relevant to the midlands region from which I come. The Government does not seem to know or care about that region. That is the truth and that is the message that is coming through to my offices from constituents.

If we want to talk about poverty, then this Government needs to get real sooner rather than later. It needs to demand a total and complete reassessment of the so-called just transition process which is a grave injustice to the people of the midlands. This process is on the verge of driving hundreds of Bord na Móna workers and up to 17,000 people in our horticulture sector into unemployment because of the hare-brained ideas that this Government is standing over and willing to support to the detriment of people in the midlands who are on their knees.

The midlands is a region that has always suffered inequality. It has the second lowest rate of disposable income in this State and yet the Government is not waking up and seeing the harsh realities and struggles of the people, workers and communities who are being left behind. We have no alternative jobs or alternative fuel sources and it is absolutely ridiculous to have such an injustice imposed on people. That is what it is. This could be done in a much more gradual way when we have an alternative fuel source. This reassessment should be carried out by the Government but should also involve Bord na Móna going back to the drawing board and reapplying for a licence to recommence peat harvesting. We were all, including the workers, of the view that they had until 2030. These are people with mortgages who need to put food on the table. They are real people who are being sacrificed because of so-called Government policies. Does the Government realise that this country only accounts for 0.1% of the world's emissions? Yet it expects the midlands to save the planet. That is the ideology here and it is absolutely crazy.

I want to make it clear that these workers are being let go, left without jobs in the middle of a global pandemic, and there is no empathy for them. As I have said before in this Chamber, workers, enterprises and communities are being left behind. There needs to be alternative employment and alternative fuel. I call on all midlands Deputies here today to put their money where their mouths are because otherwise their statements will ring hollow. There needs to be an urgent reassessment of the just transition process.

It is ironic that the people who will lose their jobs as a result of the decision made by Bord na Móna will not be able to access the fuel allowance until they are in receipt of jobseeker's payment for over 15 months. It is unacceptable that people in receipt of the PUP cannot receive the fuel allowance. There is a complete inability to enter into the experiences of people who have little income and must worry about how they are going to heat their homes. I support the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, suggestion of a national policy review on energy.

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