Today is a difficult day for many Bord na Móna workers and their communities. However, Bord na Móna is taking the steps it needs to take now, to continue to contribute to providing good and sustainable jobs in the Midlands for many years to come. Bord na Móna have confirmed that they will seek these redundancies on a voluntary basis.
Crucially today’s announcement is expected to provide for long-term, sustainable employment for the Midlands – including 400-500 jobs in new areas of the business, such as renewable energy and resource recovery.
All relevant State supports are available to the workers impacted by today’s announcement. Bord na Móna will provide additional supports to workers who opt for redundancy, including reskilling opportunities. The Government welcomes the extensive consultation which will now take place with workers in the coming weeks.
Bord na Móna is also acknowledging that Climate Change is our biggest challenge globally.
More generally, the Midlands has had strong employment growth in recent years, with 15,300 extra people at work since 2015.
There have been a series of very positive job creation announcements in the Midlands in recent years and we have every reason to be optimistic that these trends will continue.