Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

There is a considerable amount of information and the new Minister of State will move on that agenda item fairly soon once she gets her feet on the ground, so to speak. A good deal of work has been done already on this initiative in the Department, with a specific proposal to drive it forward quickly. One of the issues is that farmers will regard €45 per hectare as a nonsense. That is the reason I am raising the issue at Council on Monday because if we are to encourage people to grow energy crops, we will have to pay them. That will be a better incentive. We are doing a number of pilot projects as well. There is a good deal of interest in that and we hope to develop it over time.

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