Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is right in saying that County Clare is not included. In conjunction with European Commission, it was decided that it would involve counties Offaly, Laois, Longford, Westmeath and Roscommon as well as five additional municipal districts: Ballinasloe in County Galway; Athy and Clane-Maynooth in County Kildare; and Carrick-on-Suir and Thurles in County Tipperary. That is because our application and our approach very much targeted the switch away from extracting peat. Moneypoint is changing and will switch off coal-powered generation next year. However, it will continue to be a significant piece of energy infrastructure, initially in a transition phase using oil, but more significantly in the longer term as we develop offshore facilities, Moneypoint is very well placed. Given its location on the grid and ESB's capability, Moneypoint will have a very important future role in the energy system of this country. That is the reason County Clare is not included. It was about the counties that had previous peat-fired power generation and extraction. Managing a just transition for that particular sector was what we targeted.

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