Mr. Tom Donnellan:

If we were to go 100% biomass, then clearly the 30% would need to be increased. We are engaging with the Department on that. The decision must be made in the coming 12 months as to what type of planning will be sought, whether it will be 100% biomass or if we will continue with a co-firing option. That will determine that, but we will definitely pursue that option.

On the biomass, we carry a regular inventory of about three to four months at any given time. Most of that is indigenous, so a lot of that is material that is drying. We do not put it into the power station until it has a certain moisture level. We have different levels of peat inventories by bog and region. For example, for the Edenderry power plant we have about 18 months of peat in front of it, it is the same for Derrinlough, and for horticulture we have about six months of peat in front of it. They are in keeping with our inventory levels. They are determined particularly by whether we anticipate the weather will go with us or against us in the harvesting season.