Mr. Tom O'Brien:

If I may, when we were looking at whether to set up this business, one of the biggest questions we got from our investors was whether it was viable. Being reliant on Exchequer funding is not the best place for any industry to be in because things happen, situations change and Governments have to make decisions on where funding goes. What we really want to have is a market that is growing and being driven by market demand.

At present in Ireland, and as Mr. Lochhead mentioned, there are many large energy users with a high heat demand that have no renewable alternative energy source other than a molecule such as biomethane. This is where the renewable heat obligation comes in. It puts an obligation on large energy suppliers to procure a certain percentage of their gas as a renewable source. This, hopefully, facilitates a market demand for the product as opposed to having a situation where we are wholly reliant on Exchequer support. Europe seems to be moving away from a subsidy model and this is the approach that Ireland has taken at present, apart from perhaps some nominal grant support at the larger scale. The bedrock of this industry is not going to be Exchequer-funded support. It will be market-driven demand.