Mr. P.J. McCarthy:

I hope that I remember all of the questions. If I miss one, please let me know.

An important aspect, in terms of addressing a number of those issues, is that we need to ensure that biomethane is supported in the National Energy and Climate Plan, NECP, that will go to Brussels in December of this year.

Specifically on ammonia, ammonia is released when raw slurry is spread. Ammonia is, typically as we experience it, gaseous. Significantly, with anaerobic digestion technology and the process of having this on-farm, the process converts the ammonia to ammonium. The process crystalises it and transforms it into molecules so it comes out in the digestate, which is biofertiliser. That capturing prevents ammonia from being emitted into the atmosphere and one converts it, as part of the biofertiliser, through application to pasture land. In line with the Red II, those opportunities are clearly outlined, which is where we see significant opportunities and benefits around environmental and biodiversity issues. It assists certainly with the displacement of artificial fertilisers which, fundamentally, in their manufacture use a lot of fossil fuels. We could build an indigenous biofertiliser industry. We know what the ingredients are and we are dealing with the ammonia issue. One would apply to land a more homogenous material that is absorbed by the soil and readily taken up by plants thus displacing artificial fertiliser and dealing with the ammonia issue. Also, one avoids the run-off generated by raw slurry spreading and artificial fertiliser thus improving water quality. We are working with many local authorities and local community groups such as LEADER groups in Ballyhoura, Kilkenny and other regional jurisdictions to solve the problems and improve water quality, air quality and biodiversity. There are fundamental environmental and ecology reasons to support this.

On specific networks, as mentioned earlier we do not need a dedicated network because we already have gas networks. The biomethane reaches and meets the same technical standards as natural gas so we do not need any specific dedicated networks. We are working with some regions where they are considering developing local networks such as Sligo; localised use is fundamental to our strategic approach that anaerobic digesters are located close to networks, or have access to networks, where one has end-use. In cases where there are gas users who are off-grid, we can certainly consider solving that by way of a virtual pipeline.