Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I want to come back to the question I asked about this fund. I am looking at an email from an assistant principal officer in the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications who is responsible for gas networks. It is dated 1 April 2022. It is addressed to the competent authority for gas networks. The Department was notified about this programme on 8 March. The email was sent on 1 April, with a notification that a reply would be required by 5 April. It asked if there was a national plan to boost the deployment and connection to gas networks of biomethane. It goes on to specify that the extra volumes can be delivered by October 2022 or March 2023. This was to get a quick turnaround to replace gas that is no longer available from Russia because of the war. The email I am looking at dealt with that specifically. Mr. Cleary said in response that it would require legislation. The article in the Irish Examinerthat dealt with this matter stated: "However, gas industry experts have told the Irish Examiner that no such legislation is required for either the biomethane or liquefied natural gas strands of REPowerEU."

We know there are different funding proposals from the EU as well as our domestic funding proposal. Mr. Griffin referred to two funding programmes that are being put forward for REPowerEU. Does the €81 million or €89 million cover both of these? I am not quite sure of the amount. Is that separate?