Mr. Paddy Phelan:

To address the question on viability and cost, and to take it up to a very macro scale, we are at 13.5% renewable energy and we have a target to reach of 42.5% in less than five years. On the back of this, non-delivery will result in a €16 billion cost to the citizen in fines. The stitch-in-time scenario comes into play. It also highlights the auction designs and the present consultation on the Net-Zero Industry Act, which has just come in. There is consultation at a national level. The Irish Bioenergy Association was before a committee looking at pre-legislative scrutiny approximately two years ago.

Looking at the feedstock circularity, the nutrient recycling, the life cycle greenhouse gas benefits and, as we touched on already, the local and regional impacts, we should follow the lead of the French and the Dutch in moving to this European auction policy where can set a floor. We need a floor to be able to finance these projects. If we follow the auctions and the support scheme for electricity, there have been significant periods over the last two to three years where the Exchequer has benefited from these auctions because when the electricity price rose above the strike price, funds were returned to the Exchequer. The PSO went positive and was actually very positive for a period. All of these things are moving all of the time, but fundamentally, from a cost perspective, we are heading for fines. We said this ten years ago before the 2020 fines were imposed and we need to seriously consider how we do that. We have talked about Denmark being the second most abundant in potential energy but in the south east region alone, around Kilkenny, Carlow, Wexford and Waterford, not impacting any existing food production, and this is an important topic in this committee, and as a part-time tillage farmer myself, I understand this very well, but using existing residues from the land, we can achieve 47% of the total energy demand by 2030 in the south east region. The technology is here. The opportunity is here. There is a cost and we have to acknowledge that, but it would be very difficult to stand up in front of the public in 2032 and try to justify paying out €16 billion in missed emissions.