Comment: Talk is cheap, delivery of Longford's share of €169m Just Transition is a whole different story

The stirring and emotive soundings which were uttered by Environment Minister Eamon Ryan within the confines of Corlea Trackway Centre last Friday as part of a €169m drive to revitalise tourism, underpin small business start-ups and breathe new life into towns and villages across the midlands.

To give it its more abbreviated dictum, Just Transition has encountered a somewhat varied welcome within the parameters of Co Longford since its first intimation at the back end of 2019.

Concerns surrounding its regulative and listless rollout to the wider south Longford area in the wake of the ESB’s withdrawal over two years ago have refused to go away.

So too has the escalating irascible critique of a government, but more specifically of the man charged with addressing that negative tide in the shape of Environment Minister Eamon Ryan.

For a few hours at least, those misgivings appeared more than a tad tenuous as the Green Party leader took the wraps off a €169 million Irish/EU programme he and his fellow government leaders hope will safeguard the economic well being of Longford and seven other neighbouring counties.

It's a vast sum, unprecedented almost and from the evidence of planning and painstaking preparations that went into last Friday's launch, it's a message that came with one palpable goal attached - public buy in.

From the moment the Leader pulled up at the entrance to one of Longford's most popular tourist attractions, that overriding sentiment could not have been more apparent.

Journalists, upon their arrival were told to turn back and park their cars around half a mile away in a nearby car park where a local link bus was on hand to ferry reporters to and from the Kenagh based visitor centre.

Once inside, registration tags and media packs were handed out while a plethora of refreshments greeted dignataries from the world of local politics and various interest groups.

Add in the fact the occasion itself attracted the presence of not one, but six government ministers (one senior and five junior), and suddenly the weight placed by Ryan et al on delivering a positive message to the wider public was abundantly clear.

Mr Ryan himself, chose to use buzz words epitomised by the likes of “bold”, “transformative” and “inspiring” as central components of a scheme upon which the futures of several communities up and down the broader midlands region now rests.

“This funding today is a vision, it’s a bold investment in this future so no community is left behind,” he said.

Let's hope for this county's sake as well as his own, Mr Ryan is not left to rue those undertakings.