The idea of a “just transition” originated in the 1970s when the North American oil, chemical and atomic workers’ union called for a fund to support workers made redundant due to the environmental impact of their sector. Then in 2015, the concept of just transition was included in the pivotal Paris agreement that emerged from the United Nations climate change conference in France.
In Ireland, just transition is most closely associated with rural communities in the midlands where commercial peat production and peat-fuelled power plants were closed down as part of efforts to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions and move towards renewable energy as alternatives to fossil fuels.
The National Just Transition Fund and the EU Just Transition Fund became the conduit for efforts to address the complex issues of communities across the midlands when thousands of people – mostly men – in Bord na Móna plants and ESB peat-fuelled power stations were made redundant.
Although workers received redundancy package, it has been widely acknowledged that these rural communities faced an energy transition – in moving away from turf as a fuel – as well as an economic, social and cultural transition.
“There were 3,000-5,000 serious jobs – mainly male workers in Bord na Móna – lost in the midlands region, and there is genuine fear and regret that these craft and trade-related jobs haven’t been replaced,” says Seamus Boland, a Co Offaly farmer, former chief executive of Irish Rural Link and now president of the European Economic and Social Council.
Boland says the midlands has struggled to provide employment for its male population in the region since. “Green technology is welcome but it produces fewer jobs,” he says.
“There is also a need for a systematic retrofitting programme for 100,000 houses with low-cost loans. A lot of part-time farmers could have been trained to do this work, which would cut fuel poverty and emissions while creating employment.”
While he welcomes the tourism and heritage projects that have received funding, Boland says they don’t create many full-time jobs. “Transition funding should be focused on serious well-paid jobs for the young people who want to buy houses in their local areas,” he says.
The European Commission allocated €84.5 million to Ireland’s Territorial Just Transition Plan in December 2022. The Irish government matched it, resulting in €169 million for the economic transition of the midlands up to 2027. An earlier National Just Transition of more than €16 million operated from 2020-2024.
Counties Laois, Longford, Offaly, Roscommon and Westmeath together with the municipal districts of Ballinasloe, Co Galway; Athy, Clane and Maynooth in Co Kildare; Carrick-on-Shannon in Co Leitrim; and Thurles in Co Tipperary come under the designated territory.
The plan, administered by the Eastern and Midlands Regional Assembly, had three priorities: generating employment by diversification of the local economy, restoring degraded peatlands and repurposing industrial assets, and providing former peat communities with smart and sustainable mobility options.
“It all happened so fast,” says Linda Kelly, project manager at the Kilcormac Development Association in Co Offaly. “We were initially told the plants were closing down in 2030. But it came a lot quicker than anyone expected with no sense of what a post-peat economy would look like.” About 40 people are based in the association, which also has plans to set up a renewable energy centre of excellence. The Offaly Local Development Company also has a hub in the town.
Although Kilcormac has done reasonably well from just transition funding, Kelly is conscious that many surrounding villages haven’t fared as well. “The whole point of the fund was to create employment, and some places don’t have the skills and staff to navigate the application process,” she says.
She says communities shouldn’t have to pitching against larger agencies such as Fáilte Ireland and Bord na Móna for funding. Fáilte Ireland was allocated €38 million for sustainable tourism projects and €30 million for a network of cycling and walking trails on former peatlands with Bord na Móna.
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In the just opened Móin Cafe in the grounds of Kilcormac Development Association, former Bord na Móna employees Sean Craven and Seamus Barron are keen to discuss wider cultural and heritage issues following the closure of the peat plants.
“The Boora works produced peat mechanically since the late 1940s for power generation, briquettes and moss peat. There were 200-300 full-time workers and 700-800 workers at peak times, including farmers with small holdings and students in the summer time,” says Barron.
Both men reflect on how the Bord na Móna operations attracted families from all over Ireland and beyond with its industrial salaries and purpose-built housing for workers. Panels in Kilcormac community garden tell the story of how architect and town planner Frank Gibney (1905-1978) designed the workers’ villages in Offaly, Kildare, Longford, Westmeath and Roscommon.
Craven now questions why a retrofit programme for the terraced 1950s houses such as those in St Cormac’s Park in Kilcormac wasn’t prioritised as part of the just transition for the area. “There is a lack of joined-up thinking,” says Craven, whose other bugbear is the lack of a dedicated cycle path between nearby Lough Boora Discovery Park and Kilcormac.
Lough Boora Discovery Park attracts more than 60,000 visitors annually for cycling, walking, birdwatching, angling and other nature-based activities on a rewetted former industrial peatland site.
Craven and Barron point out that Kilcormac is only 2.5km from one entrance to the park and also a trail head on the Offaly Way walking route, yet there are no public transport links from regional train stations for visitors. “There is no safe route for cyclists and walkers from Kilcormac to Lough Boora either,” says Cravan.
Brian Flynn is a former ESB worker and Ferbane native involved in creating local employment following jobs losses in the area. He is also a member of the Just Transition Commission, an independent advisory body set up to inform government policy.
“Fifty per cent of all jobs lost in the peat industry were in Co Offaly. A lot of people are sceptical about the amount of money that has gone to Fáilte Ireland and Bord na Móna to create jobs,” he says.
Flynn has been involved in the development of the Ferbane Business and Technology Park, which has 150 jobs across several small-scale enterprises. “I’d like to see one of these parks in every midlands town. It’s better than relying on one big company,” he says.
Flynn also says Bord na Móna – now rebranded as semi-State renewable energy company BnM – should include community energy schemes in their renewable energy projects. He suggests such schemes would be better than the community benefit funding allocated to sports and community clubs by renewable energy companies.
He cites the Fintry wind farm in Scotland as an example where the community secured one of the 15 turbines on the site for community use. “Bord na Móna could do that with any of its wind farms. If there was a community dividend, there would be a better attitude locally to wind farm development,” says Flynn.
When asked whether it could or would provide turbines on wind farms for community use, BnM did not answer the question directly.
A spokesperson said, “BnM is committed to ensuring that communities benefit directly from the renewable energy projects developed across our land bank. Through Community Benefit Funds linked to our renewable energy assets, we invested €1.4 million in local communities last year, supporting near-neighbour schemes, education scholarships, home energy efficiency and retrofit and funding for a wide range of locally led projects across areas such as recreation, social inclusion and local amenities.”
Flynn would ultimately like to see an audit of just-transition funding in the midlands. “The big issue for me is where the funding has been spent,” he says.
“While all projects are worthwhile in their own right, whether or not they have generated sustainable jobs is what we need to know.”