Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. Ó Gallachóir for his presentation and for his attendance. He stated that significant ETS emission reductions may be achieved through electrification of heating and increased bio-fuel use in transport. I refer to the use of arable land for production of bio-fuel crops and the target in Harvest 2020 to increase production by 50% by 2020. This will put increased pressure on arable land to be used for food crops.

According to Teagasc, agriculture is responsible for producing 32% of our greenhouse gas emissions and we must try to reduce this while we are also trying to meet the Food Harvest 2020 targets. How can we reconcile these two? Ireland is, apparently, better than New Zealand in the context of the amount of greenhouse gases produced by agriculture. Again according to Teagasc, the emissions figure for agriculture in New Zealand is slightly higher than that which obtains here. We have reduced our emissions by just over 17% from their peak in 1998. Perhaps it is possible that there are ways in which they might be reduced further. Will our guests indicate how they see the contradictions in this regard being dealt with and how matters are going to play out?

In the context of the energy sector, one of the matters about which I have been concerned for some time is the fact that we have not yet even begun to address the issue of hydropower. This is despite the fact that the country experiences significant levels of rainfall. The potential for hydropower projects to be exploited exists at a significant number of sites throughout the country. In previous centuries, such sites were exploited in this way. In the context of public policy, this matter has not registered on the radar since the project at Ardnacrusha in 1928. The approach that was adopted in the wake of the latter was that we had done enough and there was no need to do anything else. However, there is potential to put in place throughout the country a number of small-scale projects similar to that at Ardnacrusha. Will our guests indicate how we might kick-start a move towards exploiting hydropower, which is a carbon-neutral way of producing energy.

My final point relates to waste energy. I have visited a few pilot projects in this regard but I am not aware of very many others. Nothing significant seems to have happened in this area or if it did, perhaps I missed it. I certainly have not seen much evidence of such projects. Flares are used at landfill sites to burn off methane gas, which, for want of a better word, is mad. A huge shift in policy will be required because we will be obliged to target all of these small sources. We cannot replicate what was done at Ardnacrusha or Poulaphouca 20 times over throughout the country. However, there are many small sources of energy which can be harnessed. To a large extent, we have left it to private enterprise to develop projects in this area and that has not really worked. Will our guests indicate how they see the policy shift to which I refer and which would reflect the same kind of national or Free State vision which obtained in the 1920s in the context of gearing up the ESB, Ardnacrusha, Bord na Móna, etc., coming into play? We need to make it our mission to tap into the other sources of energy that exist. As stated, in many instances the methane gas produced at landfill sites is actually being burned off.