Mr. Mike Quinn:

The plan is to move the factories towards biomass briquettes because of the carbon agenda. They will be 50% biomass and 50% peat. We are in the process of installing a trial plant in the Littleton facility, which will start in August and will produce approximately 20,000 tonnes of biomass briquettes over the winter. Those 20,000 tonnes will be rolled out to various seed customers to see how the briquettes perform. Our intention and strong belief, because we have put a great deal of research and development into this, is that those briquettes will be successful and we will begin over the next 24 months to convert the briquette factories to biomass briquette. Each factory will require an investment of approximately €10 million to convert it to allow it process the 50% peat and 50% biomass. That is a long-term project.

Another member asked whether the biomass would go to the power plants or to the briquette factories. Only one of our power plants, Edenderry Power Limited, EPL, in Edenderry, buys biomass. The ESB plants will not need large-scale biomass until 2019. We have a biomass stream separate from the briquette factories that will be dedicated to them and that will have no bearing whatsoever on the power plants.