I apologise to Deputy Cowen for interrupting him earlier. He may now proceed with his Topical Issue.

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.

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-----

The Deputy must conclude.