Mr. P.J. McCarthy:

If we can be afforded the time, this point is important. We need to understand and realise as a community, as policy makers, Government and semi-State agencies, that electrification of biomass will not address the matters and the urgency required to decarbonise manufacturing and processing industries such as those represented by the gentlemen beside me from Diageo and Dairygold. Other foreign direct investment companies and the biopharma, biomedical, medical, ICT and IT sectors, as well as the data centres with which we are all familiar, have been criticising the Irish Government for its lack of energy policy. It is critical that we understand that we need to talk about an energy mix. Electrification is not the solution for manufacturing and processing. I note that 60% of the energy demand in Ireland is from thermal, that is, gas, of which 80% is consumed by our pillar industries in the manufacturing and processing sector, which is the employment backbone of this country, and in the agrifood sector, which accounts for €13.6 billion in exports.

It would be unfair to discount the merits of renewable gas and biogas in terms of the opportunity to decarbonise agriculture, assist rural Ireland in having a place in the future and decarbonise energy, as renewable gas can.

On the EUROSTAT, we are positively disposed to working with the Department and Europe and there have been some recent developments in that regard, which we welcome. This is part of our consultative approach with the Government and Europe in addressing these regulatory barriers. It is important to understand that the green gas certification project being rolled out by the renewable gas industry and other industry participants will capture, verify and validate what is being done about greenhouse gas emissions. It will be 100% accountable, fully auditable and transparent. The gas industry is highly and fully regulated. We can fully account for what we are producing, which offers value for money to the end consumer and is sustainable.