Mr. P.J. McCarthy:

Senator Boylan asked relevant questions about the sustainability of the industry and what we can achieve. The studies that have been done between ourselves and KPMG and subsequently last year with Devenish and KPMG, with inputs from Teagasc, show that the 9 TWh to 9.5 TWh is sustainable. Reference to the 18 TWh is where one would look at complementary technologies to look at pursuing biohydrogen once there is a national network. I agree with what has been mentioned previously by industry representatives. Specifically, we have spoken to farming representative groups and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine about that opportunity. The quality of feed stock for the AD plant needs to be of a standard that would be equivalent to what one would feed a dairy herd or beef herd. We have proposed that as part of the AD charter and a national structure, 2% or 3% of the feedstock in storage would be made available as a backstop in the event of weather events or geopolitical events into the future. Consider the volumes here and the criteria for sustainability. There are 40,000 tonnes going into the AD plant, 20,000 tonnes of which would be sustainable feedstock, and 125 AD plants by 2030. That gives an idea of the volume of feedstock that would be readily available to support the dairy and beef sectors for sustainable food production.