On behalf of the Labour Party and my own behalf I would like to be associated with the expressions of sympathy on the sudden passing of two giants of public life in our land. Brendan Grace brought boundless joy to millions of Irish people at home and abroad and indeed beyond the Irish family. He was a talented actor, singer and comedian and he will be sorely missed.

I was shocked to hear today of the passing of Noel Whelan. He was a county man of mine. I have known his family. His father was a distinguished Fianna Fail councillor in Wexford. He came from Ballykillane in New Ross. I have had countless discussions with Noel on public affairs. We did not always agree but he was somebody of great intellect and incisiveness whose views I certainly listened to. He was able to marshal words in writing to great effect. He will be really missed in public affairs in this country, particularly in his native county. He was the driving force behind the Kennedy Summer School, a relatively recent innovation that brought much fresh political thought and intellectual vigour to New Ross during the summer. I hope the summer school will be maintained in his memory.

Bord na Móna has announced the loss of 72 permanent jobs and 78 seasonal jobs at Lough Ree in County Longford. It is talking to the trade unions representing the workers involved. We will see what comes of that process. I want to address the wider question, namely the future of Bord na Móna, one of the most important employers in the midlands, not only in Longford but Westmeath, Laois and all the adjoining counties. The Government's climate action plan calls for early and complete phase out of coal and peat fired electricity generation. Labour agrees that this is necessary if we are serious about cutting our greenhouse gas emissions to 33 million tonnes by 2030. We do not agree on the Government's free market approach to these jobs. Bord na Móna is a cornerstone of employment in the Midlands, in many rural and urban communities. Every good job at Bord na Móna provides demand in the local economy and keeps countless other jobs in existence. Rural Ireland needs these quality jobs but the pattern of job creation is that multinational jobs tend to be highly concentrated in the urban areas, particularly Dublin, Cork and Galway.

The State needs a vision for the role of Bord na Móna in the future low-carbon Ireland. We need to know that industrial peatlands seep massive quantities of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere, even when they are no longer worked. We cannot leave brown acidic deserts in our landscape. We need to do everything to ensure that we reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Bord na Móna can, and should, be the future custodian of our peatlands. This should involve the re-wetting of peatlands on a major scale. That is a sizeable project that will require significant State investment. It is a long-term investment in communities as well as meeting the demands of environmental protection. We will face EU fines if we do not meet our greenhouse gas targets and re-wetting our peatlands is one way to make sure we make real headway in that objective we are all agreed upon. What is the Government’s future vision for Bord na Móna?

Will it commit to a major investment programme to rewet the peatlands and a renewal of Bord na Móna's remit as the guardian of the peatlands? Will it commit to expanding the remit of Bord na Móna in order that it can take a leading role in creating new jobs in peatland restoration, wildlife management, nature tourism and recreation? Will it commit to new State-led enterprises in rural Ireland, including the major retrofit now required, to ensure all of the workers who will be disemployed by the requirements of our climate action policies will be re-employed in a beneficial way?

On the news announced today which is impactful on many families, I will give the House an update on the source of the issue and how, I hope, it may be resolved. Last month the ESB shut Lough Ree Power Station in County Longford to carry out planned maintenance. The generating station was due to return to service the week of 6 and 7 July, but the decision was taken to defer its return to service for three months to address an environmental issue linked with an Environmental Protection Agency licence. As a result, Lough Ree Power Station does not require peat supplies from Bord na Móna. This impacts on the Mount Dillon bog which is also located in County Longford. Bord na Móna has been left with no choice, therefore, but to cease all operations on the Mount Dillon bog and place all 148 staff on protective notice, effective immediately. It began informing staff at 8 a.m. All employees will be kept apprised, as one would expect, on a regular basis of how the issue is progressing. I understand the company is also talking to the trade unions. All staff - 72 permanent, full-time employees and 76 seasonal employees - will be on a temporary unpaid lay-off from Thursday, 18 July. It will continue until Bord na Móna is informed by the ESB that Lough Ree Power Station will return to normal operations, which is expected to be in four to 12 weeks' time. The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, and the Department are following the issue closely.

On the broader challenges in the context of the future of Bord na Móna, the State has made a strategic decision - it is the right strategic decision - to move away from generating electricity using coal and peat. That policy decision has been in place for some time. Bord na Móna has responded by developing a plan for diversification into renewables, a different type of resource management and aquaculture. Recently, in the climate action plan the Minister, Deputy Bruton, announced the intention to re-wet many bogs, some of which has happened. In recent years we have spent approximately €50 million on raised bogs. I am told by my colleague, the Minister, that it costs approximately €2,000 to rewet 1 ha of bog. This challenge is not without cost, but it has an important environmental value through being a secure carbon sink. It is a natural resource that we should use in dealing with the climate change challenges we face.

I am very much aware, as is the Government, of the challenges for Bord na Móna. It will need the State's help in meeting these challenges and changing the very nature of the company, how it employs people and the skill set involved. Bord na Móna will need to be a significant employer throughout the midlands in the future, as it is today. It is also a significant landowner and has a significant resource with which to work. We will support and help it through that transition which needs to be just for the workers and families involved.

I heard what the Tánaiste said about the necessity to support Bord na Móna in what is an extraordinary major transformation, but I did not hear the detail of what the support is to be. Bord na Móna is not to be abandoned as a company that must make such massive changes in the services and work it offers. We must have a national plan in sync with a just transition to a different, carbon-free economy. Today communities are fearful for their jobs. Lough Ree power plant will be the start, but many more people will be worried today. Families who have depended, in many cases for generations, on Bord na Móna want to hear clearly from the Government that it will stand by them and ensure nobody will be left behind and that they will be supported with whatever resources are required, not only to do what I have suggested such as re-wetting bogs but also to create new carbon sinks, which is an infinitely better solution than paying fines to the European Commission for a failure to meet our greenhouse gas emission targets. Will the Tánaiste give a commitment that no worker will be left behind? We all remember the Norman Tebbit attitude when the coal mines in England were closed and the Thatcherite view to workers was "Get on your bike." Let us not give that message from this House. Let us be clear that every worker in Bord na Móna who will be affected by a new national strategy into which we have all bought will be protected in a just transition and that their livelihood and that of communities throughout the midlands will be protected.

The issues at Lough Ree power plant this morning are not necessarily linked with the transition about which we are talking

It is a precursor to what will happen.

It is a specific environmental issue with licensing, water cooling systems and so on in respect of discharge. It needs to be resolved, but the Deputy is correct that in the medium term the challenges will be significant. Having said that, Bord na Móna has been planning for this and talked to its workforce about it for years. It is already diversifying. Recently it created 50 jobs in the opening of a plastics recycling plant in Littleton. It is, therefore, investing in a workforce that did not previously exist. Through the midlands regional enterprise plan, it's transition plan and regional enterprise strategies for urban and rural funding, much of which is available from the Government, we will work with Bord na Móna, those who work in it and their families in the transition which needs to happen throughout the midlands to move away from peat as a power source and perhaps use it for many other things, as outlined in the climate strategy. The State will support the efforts of the company and its workforce in the years ahead.