Dr. Paul Deane:

I would caution against the use of silver bullets with regard to energy. There are no silver bullets; it is all hard work. It is all difficult and it all takes planning. There are no game-changers. All of this stuff is difficult. Again, I will come back to my opening statement. When a state, such as Ireland, is almost 90% reliant on fossil fuels, we have some big challenges ahead. However, there are certainly some big opportunities for anaerobic digestion in Ireland. As I said, by 2030, it could meet about 20% of our natural gas needs. That would be about 6 TWh. That is actually currently within the climate action plan - to achieve that goal it is about 5.6 TWh, which is significant.

The Senator is right that it needs policy support. The cost of producing a unit of renewable gas from farmyard slurry and farmyard grass is about somewhere between €70 and €100 per MWh. As Mr. O’Donoghue mentioned, when we look at natural gas prices on global markets, at the moment they are probably trading this morning at about €120 per MWh. At present, renewable gas is competitive with fossil fuels. Of course fossil fuel prices will not remain high forever, but over the short-term foreseeable future, it will remain competitive.

There needs to be a strong recognition of the sustainability requirements. It is fundamentally important when producing any type of fuel from farmland, be it meat or renewable gas, that it done in a sustainable way and it fits within the renewable energy directives at European law and also respects biodiversity, bird life and wildlife habitats within the current Irish legislation.

We have much of the legislation in place so in many ways it is just about enforcing it and making sure that any projects that go ahead for anaerobic digestion respect it.

On the Senator's question on where Ireland is in relation to other European member states, we have one of the largest potentials on a per capitaor on a per land area basis but we have one of the lowest realisations of that capacity at the moment. If we look at that value of 6 terawatt hours, or about 20% of our natural gas in 2030, that is roughly 2% to 4% of the agricultural grasslands that we would need in Ireland. We are not talking about a vast mono-culture where vast swathes of farming are turned over into anaerobic digestion. It would be small. My personal rather than professional view is that it would be more suited to the co-operative-type organisations that we have in many parts of Ireland. They have a lot of social and community strength and trust. They also have capital. These types of investments would not be suitable for individual farmers. They would be more suitable for groups of farmers, with maybe ten or 12 farmers coming together, pooling their slurry and grass silage to produce renewable gas. It would have to be a mixture of slurry and grass, or maybe a little more grass, but it is typically a 50:50 mix. There is too much liquid content in slurry and it would not be strong enough on its own to produce enough natural gas. Of course, with grass, we need to be careful how it is grown, avoiding as much chemical fertiliser as possible. There is much very good research done in institutions, such as Teagasc and Devenish Farms, looking at different swards that can be used that would allow the production of more grass by using less chemical fertilisers. The initial findings of those studies are quite positive. Not only can they produce more grass, but they also tend to be healthier in terms of the health of the soils and allowing more biodiversity within those swards of grass. However, I would caution that this is an area where the technology and the knowledge exist but the policy is simply not there to encourage farmers to make that leap of faith. What would really be a foundation is a strong, stable policy that offers farmers or co-operatives a good and dignified return on their investment.