Mr. Seán Finan:

There are two potential models. There is what we are speaking about for Mr. Gildea, which is small scale, and then there are 50,000 tonne and 100,000 tonne plants, such as those discussed by Nephin. A capital grant is required at farm scale and we are saying it should be a minimum 50% capital grant, whereas the support requirements for larger scale industry are completely different and the obligation scheme proposes a capital grant programme there also.

I want to pick up on several of the questions. Senator Collins mentioned EPA oversight of these projects. The biogas and biomethane industry is very heavily regulated. It is governed and regulated by the Department of agriculture under the animal byproducts regulations. Each facility is licensed by the EPA and the licence conditions associated with it are very strict and stringent. There is ongoing engagement between the particular facility and the EPA. There is a lot of misinformation out there on the sector not being regulated. It is very heavily regulated and I want to make this point.

In terms of community consultation, we see large-scale biomethane facilities in residential and built-up urban areas throughout Europe and they do not pose any issue for their local communities. We have seen some plants that have not had any objections and we have seen others that have had a huge number of objections. Sometimes, the reason for objection is a lack of information and knowledge about what the technology is. We are delighted to see the biomethane strategy, and the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment is working on a communication strategy associated with the implementation of the biomethane strategy. This will be very important because to deal with these issues we need to get information out there about what this technology is and what it is not.