Offaly push at EU level for bigger slice of Just Transition fund

REPRESENTATIVES from Offaly County Council will meet European Commissioner Mairead McGuinness and MEPs in an effort to ensure the county gets its fair share of Just Transition funding.

Serious concerns about how Just Transition funding will be divided up were once again voiced at the November meeting of the council.

Millions of euros will be invested in Ireland as a result of decarbonisation from both Government and EU sources but councillors have claimed Offaly should get the biggest slice because it is the county most affected.

On Monday councillors were given an update on the Just Transition team and the activities of the Just Transition commissioner.

Council chief executive Anna Marie Delaney said 16 applications to the Just Transition fund had been approved, worth a total of €1.6m, and 10 of those projects are in Offaly.

There are a further 77 projects in “Strand 2” and these are worth between €100,000 and €1m each. That strand includes a number of projects spearheaded by Offaly County Council itself.

Ms Delaney said it is hoped that provisional grant offers will be made on those later this month.

“Hopefully the first tranche of those funds will be drawn down before the end of this year.”

At EU level, it is hoped that a “territorial plan” will have input from Offaly on its Ireland “country team” and another funding platform, the EU Coal Regions in Transition, is holding consultations this week.

Cllr Danny Owens, Fianna Fail, said the overriding issue remains how the funds will be “doled out”.

“There is an onus on us as a council to seek to ensure that Offaly get out of it what should be

rightfully ours in terms of proportionality,” said Cllr Owens.

“I say this in the light of the distribution of the retrofit monies earlier this year and if we're not careful it might be seen as a template for further distributions of monies in the future.”

Offaly representatives were disappointed when a €20m budget for retrofitting houses was spread across several counties.

Monday's meeting was told that eight houses in Offaly are currenty being retrofitted and further units are being surveyed.

Cllr Owens said it would be “ very, very bad for Offaly” if further funds are divided in the same way and said the county must fight hard to get a share proportional to the “far greater” numbers which are employed in peat-related work.

The funding must be managed by the local authority with the emphasis on job creation and he proposed that council Cathaoirleach John Carroll, the chief executive Ms Delaney, the chair of each Municipal District and Cllr Eamon Dooley should meet Ms McGuinness and the MEPs.

Cllr John Leahy, chair of Birr Municipal District, said he would be prepared to give up his place on the delegation to facilitate Cllr John Clendennen.

The Independent councillor said the council should “box clever” and have a Fine Gael councillor on the team to meet Ms McGuinness, who is a former Fine Gael MEP.

Cllr Leahy also said Offaly should ensure it is “fighting the correct battle” and should not be “beating our heads against a brick wall” by trying to change structures which the Government had established.

Cllr Dooley reacted strongly to the chief executive's report, saying he had listened to the chief executive of Bord na Mona talking about 700 jobs, the Department of Climate Action referring to 400 jobs in retrofitting and 70 jobs in bog rehabilitation outside of Bord na Mona and former Climate Action Minister Richard Bruton proposing repurposing the public service obligation levy.

“The wool is being pulled over our eyes. This is spin. We bought it so far and what have we got for it?” said the Fianna Fail councillor.

“Absolutely nothing only adding four more counties and Ballivor into our little pot of money and making sure that 5% of it went to every county. So far we've got nothing, only being made fools of.”

The former Bord na Mona employee added: “We want job creation for this county. We want the best deal for the Bord na Mona workers that have lost their jobs.”

He called on chambers of commerce and the IFA to get involved in the push for a solution to the exit of Bord na Mona from peat activities.

“Everybody in Offaly has to put their shoulder to the wheel. This is not just about west Offaly or Bord na Mona workers, this is the future of Offaly.”

He believed Offaly was already probably the second lowest county in the country in terms of disposable income.

“We'll end up being one of the poorest counties in the State unless we get our act together.”

Cllr Sean O'Brien, Independent, supported the proposal for a meeting with the EU Commisioner and the MEPs and said he was glad that Padraig Boland, from Laois and Offaly Education and Training Board, and John Costello, Midlands Regional Skills, are chairing working groups in the newly restructured Just Transition team.

“We want something very focussed on the needs of the workers in Offaly,” said Cllr O'Brien.