With the launch of Ireland's Programme for the EU Just Transition Fund by Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan, businesses in Co Longford have seen both the pros and the cons of the move away from peat production and peat-fired power generation.
At Revamp in Longford, a social enterprise set up in 2002, they are hoping to benefit from the EU Just Transition funding.
The business, which is involved in recycling and upcycling old furniture, now employs 56 people.
It is also a training project for the long-term unemployed and progresses them through different areas, eventually leading to full-time employment.
"We were able to grow our enterprise. We set up a paint reuse hub, where we take in unwanted household paint from civic amenity sites in Longford and Roscommon," said Breda Murphy, Social Enterprise Manager, Revamp Longford.
"We take it back here and it's re-processed and sold in our retail store," she said.
"This paint is also used to upscale furniture by spray-painting it, giving it a fine factory finish and we're also creative in our bespoke hand painted furniture," she added.
Three full-time positions at Revamp were created as a result of funding from the National Just Transition.
"We have an ambitious plan here in Revamp to establish a centre of excellence for the circular economy, an innovation and research hub in Longford to support the midlands and western region," Ms Murphy said.
"We want to continue the work we've been doing for the last 20 years, empowering people to transition to a zero-waste economy society and support the community through education, training and upskilling," she said.
"It's all about sewing the seed of reuse, repair and recycle. People are willing to make the change and we have to support them," she added.
Read more: €169m funding to support midlands' transition from peat use
Let down and left behind
In Lanesboro, a former peat community, not everyone is upbeat about the European Just Transition Fund, with one local businessman saying the community feels let down and left behind.
The ESB's last peat burning power station was taken down from the national grid in December 2020.
Around the same time Bord Na Móna announced jobs losses at its peat harvesting operation, which had been a fixture in the area for over 60 years.
"The young people are being taken out of our community and let go to the wind because we have no way to keep them"
Joe O'Brien of O'Brien’s Corner Shop, the well-known newsagents in the heart of the town, is part of the Lanesboro Ballyleague collaboration group.
The group are looking at the area and creating a vision for the future.
Mr O’Brien stated: "I'm not expecting too much because nothing has been delivered. It seems to be just bellyaching with politicians and officials telling us we're going to get funding, but we never get it.
"It's so disappointing, because it has created a huge brain drain in our community. Last winter in this business, we've never seen anything as poor.
"The chairman of the collaboration group had two fabulous plans that he wanted to be brought to the table. One of them is the Boardwalk. Roscommon County Council did a feasibility plan that has taken it to the Longford shore, but Longford hasn't taken it," he added.
"Another plan was an amphitheatre down in the quarry. That should have been done two years ago, but that hasn't been done either," Mr O’Brien said.
"It's crazy we're being left behind, considering we have lost so much," he added.
Like many in Lanesboro, Mr O'Brien would like to see the town prosper again.
"Lanesboro used to be a jobs hub. That's what we want again. If you bring a couple of hundred jobs in, it fills all the communities around," he said.
"The young people are being taken out of our community and let go to the wind because we have no way to keep them and no jobs to give them," he concluded.
