Dr. Karl Richards:

I want to make one other comment on biomass production. Ireland is very good at growing biomass, particularly forages. The wet nature of our climate and our wet soils are suitable for that. That is why we have animals, because we cannot eat grass. Within the renewable energy directive there is also a clause around not substituting energy for food. That is a criterion that needs to be considered, but we would see the production of forage as being a big opportunity for certain farmers that can increase production. However, it will need to take into account the environmental setting their farms operate in. Part of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, heat study we assisted in was about avoiding high nature value farmland and things like that, where very valuable biodiversity rich areas might be replaced with forages and other crops to go into anaerobic digestion. That also needs to be taken care of in terms of the considerations for targeting those areas.