·         Ms. Majella Hunt, Director of Services

Ms Majella Hunt, Director of Services, updated the meeting as follows:

·         Background on EU Green Deal including the Midlands region accepted as member in 2019 - three pillars to EU Just Transition Fund.

·         In Midlands region, the Bord na Mona ‘Brown to Green Strategy’ necessitated the formation of the Midlands Regional Transition Team in 2018 including the counties of Laois, Offaly, Longford, Westmeath, Roscommon & Kildare.

·         Numerous stakeholders including Bord na Mona, ESB, IDA, Regional Skills forum, AIT, CARO, Chambers, etc.

·         Working groups to further plans for alternative employment and skill sets.

·         START programme

·         Review of Funding Streams as theBudget allocation in 2020 is €36million -  Just Transition Fund €11m, Retrofit €20m; Rehabilitation €5m (NPWS) to BNM.

·         The challenges include economic and social impact on employees and the short timeframe for alternative employment opportunities, the impact on contractors and suppliers and the loss of disposable income and rates deficits for the affected counties

·         The Progress Report recommends the reconstitution of the MRTT membership; retention of Just Transition Commissioner; the composition of the Just Transition Project Selection Committee for the fund; increase in the budget for 2021-2026 and a coordinated Midlands approach for applications.

·         The target project areas include infrastructure, lands and facilities, tourism heritage and leisure, climate change story, green and allied enterprise incentives, renewable energy study for ESB stations, streamlining the planning and regulation process, the carbon tax budget to 2023, EV charging and rates income to 2026.

·         The closing date for submissions was 12^th June for stage 1 projects and a total of 150 received. Roscommon County Council made five submissions including two joint projects with Longford. A total of five community projects were submitted.  The closing date for stage 2 projects is 17^th July.

The Cathaoirleach welcomed the update.

The members discussed the report as follows:

·         Loss of historical employment in the Rooskey, Tarmonbarry, Cloondra areas with several hundred jobs gone over the years.

·         Can groups that made submissions be invited to meet with Community & Enterprise Unit to prevent duplication of proposals?

·         A development worker to support these projects should be a consideration.

·         Any funding received should be for the more affected areas.

·         There is a very tight timeframe for submission of projects. Councils need to work together to bring forward robust proposals.

·         Bordna Mona and the ESB must help groups with proposals.

·         Retrofitting proposals and wetting of boglands are only short term jobs where there were previously full time jobs.

·         It would be of great importance to find out what proposals were submitted so they can pool resources and work together.

·         There are many volunteers working on these projects/proposals and would like to work with other groups

·         Is there a guarantee of funding?

·         The Council needs to prioritise walking and cycling routes and look for extra funding.

·         There is a need for long term jobs from this project.

The Chief Executive stated that he was anxious that an update be provided to the elected members today on the Just Transition project but would like to hear more information from the IDA and Enterprise Ireland about the prospect of long-term jobs, industrial parks, and broadband that will sustain these jobs.

The Director of Services replied that it is hard to ascertain how many long term jobs would be created. The feasibility study on returns on employment is quite low. Bord na Mona have the contract for the retrofitting.