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06 Sept 2025
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Offaly should get priority in Just Transition say MEPs
MEPs Grace O’Sullivan, Seán Kelly and Billy Kelleher recognised the need to prioritise Offaly in the upcoming EU Just Transition Territorial Plan in an address to Seanad Eireann this week..
The matter was raised by Minister Pippa Hackett, Senator for the Laois Offaly constituency, who used the opportunity to re-emphasise to the MEPs that Offaly is the most impacted county of Ireland decarbonisation.
“I would like to take this opportunity to remind the MEP’s that their most northerly county of Offaly, is one of those counties most challenged by decarbonisation” the Minister said. “This is not conjecture, but a fact that has been widely and well documented, for example, most recently in the EnvEcon Report 2021”. This was in reference to the 2021 Report produced by EnvEcon, who were selected by the Commission to support Ireland by carrying out an assessment of the transition process. The report found that Offaly should be recognised as the most impacted county in the context of the EU Just Transition Fund.
The Minister asked the MEP’s to “do everything in their power, at this final stage, to ensure that the Just Transition Submission reflects the special case for Offaly”.
Speaking in response, Grace O’Sullivan MEP acknowledged that “any transition had to be a fair and a just transition and that we leave no one behind”.
MEPs Seán Kelly and Billy Kelleher agreed that just transition had to work to ensure that Peatland Communities should not be left behind, and that just transition had to work for specific regions and the communities within those regions.
“With the reduction in peat harvesting and the rewetting of bogs, any assessment has to accept that Offaly is the county that is most effected” said MEP Kelleher.
“I am in regular contact with Offaly County Council and my colleague, Minister Eamon Ryan, to ensure that Offaly is recognised as the most impacted county in the context of the EU Just Transition Fund, and I welcome the agreement from MEPs O’Sullivan, Kelly and Kelleher in that regard” said Minister Hackett.
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