Government Want Bord na Mona Land To Be Used For Community

Wednesday, 26 April 2023 15:50

People have given up their land for the organisation before.

The government is committing to ensure Bord na Mona finds a way to use its land for community purposes in the future.

Laois Offaly TD Barry Cowen is calling for changes to the law to allow the semi-state body to enter in to partnerships with the public.

The Fianna Fáil Deputy says upon the founding of Bord na Móna, many farmers gave their land freely or were subjects of compulsory purchase orders.

Minister of State for Trade and Enterprise, Neale Richmond agrees the State owes those people now:

Deputy Cowen has written to the Taoiseach and Tanaiste, asking for this measure to be implemented.

"In the establishment of many semi-state bodies, most notably Bord na Mona and ESB, assets of the State - water, land, etc - were compulsorily purchased or given as gifts to these bodies. As we see in many regions of the world, reparation commissions and inquiries are now taking place or to take place to account for actions taken in past times. The Government needs to act to return some of these lands and other assets taken from communities in the 1920s to 1960s. These semi-state bodies are now some of the richest companies in Ireland and Europe. While originally with a social purpose, that is now lost and they have proved useless to the nation in the current energy-costs crisis. Therefore I believe the Government should set up a reparations commission on their assets. Land and other valuable commodities of the State that they got on the cheap or for free in the last 100 years should now be returned to the State and communities or a value placed on the assets, with funding returned for local communities.

Some might say ESB and Bord na Mona have been deaf to the pressures householders, farmers businesses and the State have been under in the energy crisis. In my own constituency, Bord na Mona has not co-operated with local communities that wanted to start energy parks on lands the company got for nothing or for tiny money. Corporate hoarding of land and assets by semi-states has to be stopped and a fair return should now be made to communities. I am calling for a reparations body to be established and for land and investment to be returned to the communities that originally lost these lands. There may be models to follow from Carribean slavery reparations and with the Indian Claims Commission in the USA."