60 new jobs might be created in West Offaly
‘This project will be a Fire Testing operation and the Dalton Centre in the former Shannonbridge Power Station site will be one of the possible four local sites’
A POSSIBLE 60 new jobs might be created in West Offaly, a meeting in Shannonbridge was told last week.
The meeting was called by Independent Ireland's Ciaran Mullooly, MEP, and also in attendance was Cllr Fergus McDonnell of Offaly County Council and Independent Ireland.
There were about 40 people present in the Community Hall and they listened to JJ O'Hara, CEO of the major company Future Cast, talk about the work his company does and his strong interest in creating new jobs in Shannonbridge and the wider West Offaly area.
Mr Mullooly said they have identified 4 local sites “where JJ and his team in Future Cast can evaluate the location for the employment project that is being proposed.” This project will be a Fire Testing operation and the Dalton Centre in the former Shannonbridge Power Station site will be one of the possible four local sites. Future Cast might create 15 new jobs in the Dalton Centre and 40 to 45 jobs in other former Bord na Móna sites in Lough Boora and Lemanaghan and perhaps a former school in Shannonbridge (previously the Oliver Plunkett National School).
Mr O'Hara pointed out that his company is often examining innovative ideas from around the world, such as Pyrolysis technology, and seeing if they can be implemented here in Ireland. “We work with other companies to try and develop these ideas, and we also offer training courses for young people.” He pointed out that there is a worrying shortage of tradespeople in Ireland which means that there are far more construction, repair, and engineering projects needing workers than there are qualified people available to complete them. He added that Future Cast has funding in place to create a Fire Testing operation for a huge range of items.
Mr Mullooly said it would make perfect sense for Offaly County Council and Mr O'Hara to come together and create 15 jobs in the Dalton Centre.
He said that six weeks ago he and other politicians met with Paddy Hayes, the Chief Executive of the ESB, to discuss the future of the former, vacant power station in Lanesboro, Co Longford. The ESB received planning approval to demolish the plant, though local groups and politicians have continuously pushed to pause or halt the demolition. The Chief Executive was not for turning, remarked Mr Mullooly. “They are going to disassemble the power station, and have advertised internationally for companies to carry out this work. It's estimated taking down the station will cost €20 million. They plan to construct a Battery Storage Plant in its stead. Only 3 jobs will be created in the new Battery Plant. We begged the ESB to save at least some of the former power station but they said no.
“In terms of nationwide power generation the ESB is under pressure at the moment and there have been a number of power cuts, as a result of which some companies have had to purchase generators and place them on their premises.”
Mr O'Hara said his company could possibly create an additional 45 jobs in former Bord na Móna premises in the Lough Boora and Lemanaghan areas of West Offaly.
Regarding the former power station in Shannonbridge the ESB secured planning permission to demolish the peat-fired plant in 2023. However, full demolition was temporarily paused so the site could host a Temporary Emergency Generation plant to support the Irish power grid.
A temporary emergency generation plant burns fuel to produce electricity quickly, while a battery plant stores and releases electricity chemically without burning fuel.
One attendee at the meeting said 1200 jobs were lost in West Offaly due to the government's decarbonisation plan and the EU Just Transition Fund hadn't replaced them. “They promised to replace the jobs by using the Just Transition Fund,” he commented, “but it didn't happen. By contrast, in Poland when the coal mines closed they engaged much more closely with the affected communities.” Mr Mullooly agreed, saying it was largely tourism projects which benefited from the €169 million Just Transition Fund in Ireland. “Most of the Just Transition budget is now gone,” he remarked, “and we are now going to be targeting the European Social Fund which becomes available in November. We will insist that the ESF goes towards creating jobs. You know, in Poland they have a museum dedicated to the coal industry but there is no museum here for the peat industry. It is as if the decades of peat harvesting has been simply forgotten about.” He said he's a big believer in greatly increasing the places available on apprenticeship courses.
The MEP asked the audience to raise their hands if they would like to see the ESB rowing back on its plans to disassemble Shannonbridge Power Station and instead keep it as a place in which new jobs would be created. Everyone in the Hall raised their hands, unanimously agreeing with saving the Power Station from dismantlement and using it for job creation.
Mr Mullooly spoke of the big problem, but rarely mentioned in public discourse, of many local communities throughout Ireland unwillingly locked into long commutes out of their regions for work. Returning home late into the evening, exhausted, they have no choice but to live this unsatisfactory existence of trying to “carve out a living for themselves while spending endless hours driving or travelling in the process.”
The MEP said Shannonbridge is an excellent location. “I am all too aware that the community wants to see a regeneration of the area, a jobs revitalisation.”He recently raised the issue in the European Parliament, where a report he proposed received overwhelming support. The report calls on governments to make state and semi-state lands and assets available to support replacement employment as part of the EU's Just Transition commitments.In the period 1970 to 2020, over 1000 people were employed by Bord na Móna and ESB at the Blackwater works and the Shannonbridge power station in county Offaly.Everyone knew the end of the peat harvesting era would lead to a gradual reduction in employment levels but in December 2020, a plan for a phased out closure over a ten year period fell apart and Shannonbridge power station abruptly closed, causing a cliff fall-off situation.Mr Mullooly pointed out that the West Offaly region is now “a very changed area with no large scale employment and considerable depopulation, in the wake of both Bord na Móna and the ESB exiting the jobs market."After last week's meeting in Shannonbridge Community Hall, the MEP said it had been a very successful meeting. “We will return with an update in November on the new apprenticeship training that was referred to. I want to give my thanks to the former Bord na Móna workers who attended the meeting, including my colleague Fergus McDonnell, who is a former Bord na Móna worker.”