A local businessman in Lanesboro says people in the local area have no hope that the power station could be kept open as a means of generating electricity from biomass or some other fuel.
Joe O' Brien was speaking following confirmation today that Longford Council has given permission to the ESB to take the structure down.
The station was closed in December two years ago with the local of hundreds of jobs locally in the station itself and on Bord Na Mona.
Joe O'Brien who runs a shop in the centre of Lanesboro says the area has been decimated in the last two years and nothing has been done to try to replace the job, despite promises of Just Transition and government support.
"There is a great sense of loss at what happened but we realise that its coming down now. Once it closed we realised it was coming down. Things on the ground are pretty poor. You'll get money from Just Transition to do a feasibility study all day, every day but that's about it. There's nothing else following it up, quite honestly, either from the council, or outside, or from government. The whole area is being kind of decimated".
