Plant breakdown could close Offaly briquette factory

THE last remaining Bord na Mona briquette factory could be just one major breakdown away from a rapid closure, a worker warned this week.

Because of a lack of investment in maintenance, the plant and machinery at the factory in Derrinlough is “worn” and employees have been told there will be no further significant investment in repair and upkeep.

One worker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “Very little maintenance is being done, if something big happens to our turbine or something [else] big in the plant, we will not be fixing it. And management have said that to the workers already at local level.”

The poor quality of the peat being used to make new briquettes has had a severe impact on output.

At peak, the factory was capable of manufacturing up to 25 tonnes of briquettes an hour but currently that is down to between nine and 13 tonnes.

One tonne of briquettes is equal to 80 bales of the solid fuel as it is sold in retailers all over the country for domestic burning. Stocks are low in Derrinlough.

Bord na Mona's decision to cease cutting on its bogs completely has resulted in the decline in peat quality.

“Since then there's been no harvesting of peat so we're relying on stockpiles that have been sitting on a bog. Some has been covered, some hasn't been covered, so you have peat that's out in the elements and sucking up moisture. They're piles that have been there for many years and they're just of poor quality and high moisture.”

Up to 65 workers are still employed in briquette manufacture and an estimated similar number deliver the peat to the factory.

The company had previously said production would continue until 2024 but staff were told late last year that ongoing manufacturing would depend on “the quality of the peat”.

“So they were covering themselves,” the worker said of management.

There was anger last week when the company confirmed to the Tribune that production will end this year. Workers say they were not formally told of a closure in 2023.

“The biggest gripe the lads have at the moment is the redeployment options or opportunities,” said the worker.

Employees have been told they might be redeployed to the company's Peatlands Climate Action Scheme (PCAS), working on greenways, or to jobs in recycling at the locations in Tullamore (formerly known as AES) or Silliott Hill, Co Kildare.

The worker agreed with comments made by former Bord na Mona employee, Cllr Eamon Dooley.

“The redeployment options locally are time limited. They're only going to be there for a number of years, the next two to three years. A lot of the bogs in the areas around the Midlands are going through this rehabilitation stage already and will be done within the next 12 months,” he said.

“The question workers have is if I go on PCAS, which is the bog rewetting, when that's finished, where do I go then? There's nothing, everything in theory is going to be done [by then].”

Wet conditions on the bog also mean the peatland restoration work cannot be done between November and March.

“The workers are worried [because] within the redeployment options, there's no great life in them in terms of timescale.”

The factory provided employment for people from places around Offaly including Ferbane, Tullamore, Kilcormac, Birr and Banagher and it will be difficult to source jobs if staff have to leave Bord na Mona.

“There has been a lot of young blood [coming in] in the last 10 years due to natural retirement... there's a couple of men with over 40 years of service done but you've a lot of men down there with young families, mortgages, children in college and going to school. It's hard to plan for the future and decide what do to.”

So far, redundancy packages have not been discussed and the worker suspects they might not yet be an option because Bord na Mona has received EU grant aid of up to €108m for its PCAS bog restoration programme.

“They got so much money for creating employment they can't be seen to be handing a package to lads and saying 'Go on, good luck',” said the worker.

Workers were told a number of years ago that when the other briquette factory in Littleton, Co Tipperary closed there would be investment in Derrinlough, including a possible combined heat and power generator.

That did not happen and attempts to develop a more environmentally friendly briquette, possibly with sawdust and biomass as a raw material, were unsuccessful. The feasibility of locating a biodigester in Derrinlough is being examined, some workers believe.

Though other new jobs are being created by Bord na Mona in its transition to a 'climate solutions' company, factory workers are concerned many of them appear to be in professions such as quantity surveying and health and safety management.

“They're all jobs where you have to have a third level education. There is nothing for your normal general operative, the ordinary Joe Soap.

“It's a sad day for the country to see what's happened. They [ESB] closed down two power stations and now they're talking about putting diesel generators into these power stations for peaking. We're getting rid of our briquette but yet it's alright to burn imported fuels.”

He added: “Workers have to be given as much help as needed now and a proper commitment has to be given for the training of staff to pursue whatever sort of career they want outside of Bord na Mona. It's not our fault that this is being imposed on us. We're going to be with the ship until it sinks.”

He said Bord na Mona need to be more outgoing and forthright with their information to the workers and he stated staff appreciate the supportive comments from local TDs Carol Nolan and Barry Cowen.

“But the Government and the IDA need to get into gear and get some sort of job creation in the Midlands because when the briquette factory goes... it's a wide area where all these workers are coming from and without any proper employment or future, it's going to leave a great vacuum in the Midlands.”