Just Transition 'failing to create enough jobs in Midlands': MEP

The level of investment and job creation in the Midlands through the EU Just Transition programme is falling far short of the level required to sustain communities in the region impacted by the loss of peat production, MEP Ciaran Mullooly has warned.

A report this week by Indecon found there were issues with "the long-term sustainable impact" of the Just Transition fund.

It said projects supported by the EU fund had been expected to create up to 1,094 full or part-time jobs, but that just 183 posts had actually been created.

Commenting on this report, MEP Mullooly said he was "disappointed but not surprised" by the findings, which also showed that just €16 million of the €22.2 million allocated to the fund had been drawn down.

Government analysis found that more than 1,000 employees and contractors were directly impacted by the transition away from peat production in the Midlands.

"This report confirms what I have been saying from day one: announcing proposals and funding is not the same as delivering investment and replacement livelihoods for the people affected," Mr Mullooly said.

"The investment and employment our communities were led to expect have not materialised on the scale required.

"More alarmingly, I do not believe they will materialise unless the policy changes. The approach is wrong because it is not sufficiently focused on the people and places that lost their livelihoods."

Mr Mullooly said the fund should have been built around practical routes into work and stronger support for local employers.

"My position has been clear: we needed a skills-based approach, a dedicated apprenticeship scheme and much stronger support for small and medium-sized businesses willing to invest and employ locally.

"But the application process was weighed down by red tape, while State aid rules also affected applications."

He said the economic consequences of ending peat harvesting and closing power stations in the Midlands reached far beyond the plants themselves.

"The ending of peat harvesting by Bord na Móna, the closure of the power stations and the impact on associated businesses struck at the heart of the Midlands economy.

"These were political choices with consequences for workers, contractors, families and entire communities.

"Peat extraction continues in other European countries, including Latvia and Estonia. People in the Midlands are entitled to ask why their industry was shut down before adequate replacement employment was in place," he added.

"People in the Midlands were given barely a year to prepare. A previous government Just Transition Progress Report stated that a transition expected to take ten years had been reduced to twelve months, possibly shorter.

"Compare that with Poland, where the agreed coal-mine phase-out timetable runs to the end of 2049 and five regions there have been allocated €3.85 billion from the EU Just Transition Fund for 2021–27.

"Our communities deserved the same kind of long-term planning and serious investment," the Independent Ireland representative concluded.