Mr. Se?n Finan:

I would like to make one point in response to the Deputy's question. What we have seen is that a lot of the issues around planning permission in local communities stem from a lack of knowledge at all levels. That is, knowledge among the community, at a local regulatory level and sometimes at a political level. There is a lot of upskilling which needs to be done from the point of view of all stakeholders being made aware of what this technology is and what it is not. Sometimes, one would hear stuff about different types of things being put into the plants, and different issues arising, which are completely and utterly fabricated. It is not correct, in that you do not put in dead animals, and all that type of stuff.

There are a lot misnomers out there around what anaerobic digestion, AD is, and what it is not. We see across Europe that there are AD units built at the end of houses, on or connected to the same building. We have seen in Luxembourg, Germany and other countries where they are integrated within towns, villages and communities, without any issue arising. Those communities have accepted them on the basis that they do not cause an issue, and that they understand what the technology is doing for them in terms of their needs, reducing fossil fuel usage and decarbonising their system. If it is a combined heat and power, CHP unit, the heat might be going to the local community centre. There are benefits and values that can be gained from it. Education and knowledge is key, and it is also very important that political leadership be shown in advocating the benefits of these units across the country, and explaining the broader context of why we are doing it, namely, reducing emissions, global warming etc.

I would like to make one final point around the Deputy's question about jobs. Our policy paper very clearly sets out that for every 1 MW of biomethane production in the country, there are 5.9 direct jobs. If we look at the 5.7 TWh, our target, that is approximately 710 to 715 MW based on 8,000 operational hours. Multiply that by 5.9 and it is a couple of thousand people directly involved. Mr. Murray has spoken about the broader benefits. One is talking about multiples of that in terms of broader benefits, supply chains, equipment suppliers and local contractors. Regarding direct jobs, 5.9 is the metric we use.