Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I fully agree with Mr. Donnellan when he said it is critical to get this transition in Bord na Móna right. It is a proud, brilliant company with a great workforce and, therefore, we must get it right. I have a terrible fear that it is being led down a cul-de-sac in the context of an unsustainable approach in promoting the continued firing of biomass in power generation. No one I know in the environmental sector, nor anyone I know who has expertise of energy, thinks it will be sustainable. Two thirds of the energy goes up the chimney as waste heat, for example. As the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland states on page 13 of its most recent report in the context of renewable heat and where we need to use biomass, "Increased use of biomass for electricity generation ... reduces the national biomass resource available for business looking to use it for renewable heat". It also states, "It also increases the cost of the biomass resources for heat ... [by up to] 4-fold". The target from which we are furthest away is that relating to renewable heat. If all three stations are converted to full-scale biomass, that is, without the use of peat, how many tonnes of biomass will be needed? Is Bord na Móna still considering importing biomass from the USA? It was considering the purchase of a forest in Georgia. Is that where it might be imported from? How many tonnes of biomass will Bord na Móna need?