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

I am extremely aware of the importance of this industry to a county the Deputy and his family have represented with such distinction for decades. The suggestions he made are commonsensical and worthwhile. It behoves me to have great responsibility not just to bring them back to ministerial colleagues in Government, which I undertake to do, but take it further and engage on my behalf and on behalf of my Department with the chair and CEO of Bord na Móna following on from this debate, which was very engaging and important. I make this commitment to the Deputy at this late hour but it is one that merits it. I might pick up with the Deputy directly to make sure it is done in an appropriate manner that is truly reflective of the full points he made and those he was not in a position to make this evening. Much of it covers directly the responsibilities to the employees at the heart of this necessary but huge cultural change in a community that has relied on this industry for generations. It is not just the Derrinlough Briquette Factory but many other industries that are affected by what is a seismic change.

This is a community with which I am very familiar through familial connections. This is an issue on which we can work together outside my Department's remit by engaging with the real responsibilities of the just transition fund and the work of the SEAI to be an equal opportunities agency to those citizens who, when the State needed them, contributed physically with their human power and by giving up their land. We know that in Ireland, land means so much to individuals but they were not found wanting. The State and, crucially, its agents should not be found wanting in response to their sacrifices.

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