Mr. Tony Collins:

I am from the e-policy division of the Department. We have been working with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on the CAP commitment to deliver a national biomethane strategy. We are at the final stages of that and expect to bring it to the Minister to bring it to Government shortly. The strategy will target the delivery of up to 5.7 TWh of biomethane with plants at scale of about 40 GWh - approximately 140 of them nationally over the coming years. The strategy will set out the aims in terms of implementation groups and so on to put the strategy in place, as well as the sustainability criteria.

In terms of feedstocks, we consulted with industry stakeholders during the development of the strategy and there was a public consultation which garnered quite a few responses. Food waste has a role in the anaerobic digestion industry we envisage and has potential to deliver up to 1 TWh of that 5.7 TWh target.