Ms Geraldine O'Sullivan:

I want to speak about best examples and learning, particularly with regard to the mobilisation of biomass and supporting the establishment of energy supply companies that are farmer-led and the benefits this can have in rural communities. We have not been very good in this country at embracing the rural benefit of bioenergy. We often focus on wind and solar because you do not have to deal with the supply chain. The supply chain offers huge benefits to our economy and our rural economies. There are great examples of how we can set up these supply chain mechanisms and ensure we maximise the benefit to farmers and rural communities. It has been shown this can create multiple layers of employment at various skill levels. This has a social benefit for rural economies. As well as looking at anaerobic digestion technology, the systems used to feed into the plants are very important.

Going back 11 or 12 years ago, when the Minister, Deputy Ryan, was a Minister in the Department of Communications Energy and Natural Resources, everybody was looking at developing the renewable energy feed-in tariff, REFIT 3. There was considerable nervousness around numbers and impacts. To allay that fear-----