Fianna Fáil TD for Longford, Joe Flaherty, has written to Longford County Council urging them to work with their Community Development section to bid for a new centre for climate change in the midlands.
Deputy Flaherty made the call as the Just Transition Commissioner Kieran Mulvey recommended a new centre for climate change to serve as live memory for ESB and Bord na Mona workers in the midlands.
Deputy Flaherty explained, “The Community Development section of Longford County Council is always working towards establishing and developing social and cultural experiences in Longford.
“This is a great opportunity to develop a major tourism attraction in the community and bring people from all over Ireland to the county.
“Among other shortfalls we need innovative proposals like this to help plug the loss of €600,000 in annual rates which Longford County Council collected from the Lanesboro site
“Bord na Móna has been a feature in Lanesboro since the early 1950s, it made Lanesboro a viable economic town. Employees, permanent and seasonal, spent their money locally in the shops, pubs, butchers, etc. This kind of microcosm is almost impossible to replicate so we need forward thinking ideas like this,” he concluded.