Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise to the Chair and, more important, Deputy Cowen for the logistical mess-up at the start. I was moving over from dealing with oral parliamentary questions.

To provide context to my reply, the Department has not received a formal redundancy notification in regard to the company just yet. That covers an awful lot of what the response can be at this stage, but I will try as best as I can to engage with the very clear points the Deputy made.

I understand that when Bord na Móna first announced, in 2018, the forecasted end to peat milling and all services related to it, a team of officials from the Department and Laois and Offaly Education and Training Board developed an information package for affected employees, providing information on income supports available and also the supports provided to assist with the return to work, upskilling and retraining, as referred to by the Deputy. The Deputy will know an event was organised for staff around that time that involved presentations from both the Department and the education and training board, in addition to meetings with staff members to discuss their individual circumstances.

The Department has been advised that the employees impacted by the closure of the Derrinlough briquette factory are currently engaging with management to discuss the redeployment of the staff. The Deputy made four key asks on redeployment. They were fair asks and I will undertake to raise them directly with the board in my capacity as well as liaise with the Minister, Deputy Ryan, under whose auspices this matter falls more directly. The concern is very understandable on the part of those workers who have given so much of their professional and personal lives to an industry that has been so vital to the Deputy's community.

Generally, when the Department is advised of a company redundancy, officials of the Department engage with the company concerned, initially providing information on the full range of income and employment support services available to the workforce. The information provided initially addresses issues relating primarily to redundancy entitlements and income support, ensuring that all statutory obligations are met.

In addition, a team from the Department is available to meet with the workforce virtually or in person to ensure speedy access to income supports and to support them into alternative employment or to access appropriate education, training and development options.

When a person moves onto a jobseeker's payment, the local employment service teams provide expert help and advice on employment, training and personal development opportunities with a focus on individual customer needs to help him or her enter the workforce. These individualised supports assist the jobseeker with getting back to work and increasing his or her employment options. This support comes in various forms, as the Deputy is aware.

The Department also provides an online jobs portal - Jobslreland.ie- which enables employers to advertise job vacancies and for jobseekers to apply for job vacancies. We know that at a time of effective full employment, there are many vacancies and a serious dearth of talent but I appreciate the Deputy's concern will be redeployment as opposed to the redundancy aspect.

The Department’s employment services division has a network of staff across the country providing expert guidance and resources to both jobseekers and employers. In the event that employees in Derrinlough Briquette Factory are made redundant rather than redeployed, the Department is available to assist the employees to access their full income and employment supports. It is never a good time to lose a job and be made redundant, particularly in this situation where people have been on tenterhooks, for want of a better word, for a number of years through no fault of their own but due to an overall process in the region. The Deputy's requests regarding the general just transition fund and community energy supports are fair and I undertake to bring them back to others, where appropriate.

See this speech in context