Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the Chamber and wish him well in his brief. I welcome the Bill and the increased funding for the climate action fund.

I come from Longford, one of the areas that has been hit with the closure of the plant in Lanesborough. Thousands of people in our area relied on jobs from Bord na Móna and the ESB over the past number of decades. We were hit with a hammer blow by the decision by An Bord Pleanála to turn down the ESB's application, and it has brought forward massive changes in our community. A local collaborative group has been working for the past number of years to try to bring forward plans for alternative jobs in our area. I ask that we would be prioritised as an area, along with Offaly, as the area that is most affected and has the largest number of job losses because of these changes with the ESB and Bord na Móna.

I ask the Minister to also examine the planning conditions for those plants, which means that they must be decommissioned and taken down. I ask that that would be stalled to allow the groups to examine alternatives for the use of the power stations as they currently exist. That is a priority that must be dealt with straight away. We must prioritise these areas for funding, as they are the areas most affected by job losses because of just transition.

I ask also that we would promote the development of the mid-Shannon wilderness park. Our local authority in Longford and the county tourism committee has been working towards developing a natural park in the 20,000 acres of bogland in that part of County Longford.

I ask the Minister to look at those issues. I ask him for his support, and I invite him to come to County Longford to meet the people on the ground in Bord na Móna and ESB who are losing their jobs.