Mr. Paul McKiernan:

Deputy Mulherin made the point that there can be unintended consequences when people grow energy crops instead of food crops. My colleagues in the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources picked up on her point. Ireland's core argument is that agriculture is about growing food and, principally, it should not be about growing something that will be turned into an energy but a by-product is okay.

With regard to waste, I can assure Deputy Mulherin that the Minister, Deputy Coveney shares her deep interest in anaerobic digestion. However, I do not want to pre-empt the national bio-energy strategy. Before Christmas technical advisers from my Department, specifically my division, another environmental division and the animal by-products division, met a number of people who had projects in mind or are at various stages of development. We gave them as much information as we could on what the Department required. There are issues about feed stock and whether pasteurisation is needed before it can be spread on land. I am not a scientist and I am glad that have some with me that can explain it better. However, I understand the pasteurisation being required in order to prevent the spread of pathogens, etc. and I know that others can make a counter argument for same. The Department is open to exploring the matter and wants anaerobic digestion to work.