Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted we are having this session and the more I learn about anaerobic digestion, its technology and benefits, the more I believe firmly that it must be part of our future and something we roll out on a greater scale. The IFA has mentioned the potential of decarbonising agriculture and the challenges the sector will have in reaching emissions targets and I really see this playing a key role. There will also be a role in hospitality if we think about the smaller anaerobic digesters using organic matter such as food waste etc., and they could produce enough gas to cook with.

I have a Bill with the Bills Office that has the full backing of my party for introduction to Parliament. It is about introducing an anaerobic digestion strategy or policy, and it would put a time limit on the Minister introducing such a strategy. There are two reasons to introduce it. The first is to ensure we speed up the rate at which we look at this technology but it is also about having a discussion around anaerobic digestion, as we are having here, and the role it could play. As Dr. Beausang has said, this should be done in a sustainable way and we should mitigate against risks.

I have some quick-fire questions and I will try to target them at particular people so we can get quick responses. Mr. Finan and Mr. Gavigan mentioned a French example. Compared with somewhere like Germany, how many medium to large-scale anaerobic digesters do we have in Ireland? Do they have those figures to hand?