Dáil debates
Tuesday, 25 April 2023
Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate
Job Losses
11:30 pm
James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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I apologise to Deputy Cowen for interrupting him earlier. He may now proceed with his Topical Issue.
Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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This issue is in response to the impending and accelerated closure of the Derrinlough briquette factory in County Offaly. Our first priority, of course, is to deal with those impacted and their families. I am aware of the discussions that have taken place and that are ongoing on opportunities for redeployment, a rewetting programme, the waste management unit, renewable energy projects and the retraining that may take place under just transition in conjunction with Laois and Offaly Education and Training Board and the university in Athlone.
There are four points I want to make to the Minister of State with a view to his speaking to his colleagues in the Government and the board itself. Any training sponsored by the just transition fund should be on Bord na Móna time rather than workforce time. There is a need to recognise the costs associated with and new travel expenses that will be incurred on redeployment. There is a need to acknowledge that the shift allowance paid in the factory setting should be recognised in the new roles that may be available, without workers being asked to work for 47 hours to earn what was earned in 40 hours. There was an expectation that a new job would have the same pay.
In the interest of the goodwill sought by virtue of the decarbonisation project being brought forward by many years, it is incumbent on the board to insist that the issues in question be taken out of the Labour Relations Commission and brought back to the table, with an agreement reached as soon as possible in order for communities to move forward.
Our intention when the acceleration of decarbonisation became a reality in 2016, rather than 2030, was to ensure funds would be invested to help to create innovation, retrain workforces and communities and offer new opportunities to bring people along rather than challenge them. We fought hard and made difficult decisions to ensure increases in carbon tax revenue would be geared towards addressing fuel poverty and green projects and to assist in the transition of those regions most impacted, especially the one in question.
We have had Government and ESB funds, following closures, of up to €15 million or more. On foot of an interjection by me and local councillors in my county, it was insisted that the then Government seek to include the peat regions among the coal regions eligible for funding under the EU just transition fund. That has been forthcoming and will be announced this week when the administrative element of the distribution is formalised this Friday. Funds made up to €180 million, related to the national development plan, will seek to assist community-initiated projects in conjunction with local authorities and accommodate innovation and enterprise by new and existing industries that have a green tint. The tourism element managed by Fáilte Ireland must be considered in this regard.
While the acceleration continues at pace, the mitigation measures put in place unfortunately have not proceeded at the same rate. That has created some friction in the locality, community, county and region. It is imperative that this be addressed.
Only last week I was communicating with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to seek an increase of 10% to meet the increase in the cost of construction materials associated with a project by Ferbane Food Campus. Initially, up to €600,000 was granted to meet the demands incurred since Covid, with other Departments having done likewise. The Minister informed me it was not possible while at the same time he responded to another Deputy in the House saying €1.5 million in transition funding had been transferred elsewhere prior to the close of last year. That needs to be rectified. New applications, which can be made in the new funding round, should accommodate those caught in this bind. There should be an extension of time for anybody caught in it.
There are other issues concerning community energy projects that need to be addressed, as do the issues of targeted initiatives to address the dependency on solid fuels of many homes in my county and the compensatory measures that have to be put in place in that regard.
Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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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.
11:40 pm
Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. I particularly welcome his commitment in acknowledging the four issues I have raised that are pertinent specifically to the workforce and their asks and expectations regarding the negotiations as well as the commitment to bring that to bear on the line Minister, who I am sure will in turn will talk to the CEO and management with a view to re-establishing the good faith and goodwill that can help with the wider issues I mentioned.
When Bord na Móna was set up in the 1940s, much of the land was provided not only by compulsory purchase, as might have been the case in some instances, but by many landowners giving their land freely to realise an ambition they never thought would come to fruition, namely, that a livelihood could be derived from such lands. A stable diet of income, investment and advancement took place as a result of that contribution to the county and region thereafter. Now it is time for that to reciprocated, notwithstanding the ongoing work of the board on alternative energy projects and the rewetting programme in which it is engaged. There is an expectation that the board will adhere to the purpose for which those funds were given.
I have had negotiations and discussions not only with the board and the Government but also with the affected communities and their representatives who are interested in exploring the option of the board providing land, whether by donation or nominal lease, to the community to allow a community energy project that has the potential to yield a benefit of up to €9 million per annum. This in turn could be administered by the local authority and allow it to be in a position to compensate for the loss of €4 million or €5 million in rates income in the county as a result of the closures we have seen in recent years and to act on many of the development initiatives and proposals in development plans that could not otherwise be done. I saw a project in my constituency where the result was an investment that was made and administered by the local authority involving robotics for children in primary school. A school close to my home town of Tober won the county championship, went on to win a competition involving schools throughout the country and is now competing at world level in Texas next week. That is an investment that could yield opportunities that were never available before through investment in STEM subjects and engineering expertise, which can benefit the locality.
I beg the Acting Chairman's indulgence. I have been waiting since last Thursday to discuss this matter and have been given three or four minutes to do so. The discussion was then delayed by an hour. With the Acting Chairman's indulgence - at this late hour, I do not think it will affect too many people who are waiting to speak after me - I finally want to address the SEAI programme of investment for those households that cannot afford a bespoke opportunity available to some to provide €30,000 on top of the €30,000 grant. We were successful in getting 90% for investment in insulation grants but it is time to move beyond that to windows and doors to allow for-----
James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy must conclude.
Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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With due respect, I implore the Minister of State to bring that to Government to ensure that a new round of such offerings is made available because in the county I represent, up to 40% of homes are dependent on solid fuel as opposed to 5% or 6% nationally.
Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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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.