Gerard Murphy (Cork North West, Fine Gael)

There is much talk by the Government about the strength of our economy, which has been buoyant over the past 12 years. These 12 years of boom should have provided the opportunity to develop the two basic building blocks that would secure continued economic growth in the future, good infrastructure and an affordable and secure energy supply.

We all know where we stand on the good infrastructure. Delay after delay on meeting deadlines, with corresponding budget overruns, have left our transport system little better than that of a third world country. People face hours on end stuck in traffic, a Luas system that does not connect and an outdated train system. Also, we have totally abandoned the concept of carrying goods by rail. So much for the first pillar needed to maintain our economic growth into the future.

The second pillar of economic growth is a secure, affordable, environmentally friendly source of energy that could save our economy hundreds of millions of euro in carbon taxes. We could have begun to solve this problem by taking a serious look at the beet industry, particularly that at the Mallow and Carlow factories. In addition to contributing to our fuel security, the saving of the Mallow factory could have gone some way towards providing an alternative crop to help our hard-pressed farmers. Not only has the Government failed to secure our economic future through the lack of adequate infrastructure, roads and rail, it has failed to make any effort to secure our energy needs.

By failing to make any progress in these two fundamental areas, the Government has allowed our agriculture industry to die. Some foresight and planning could have gone a long way to securing energy for our future and could at the same time have revitalised our agriculture sector. There would then have been no need for former sugar factory workers from the Mallow sugar factory to spend another day picketing outside Greencore yesterday seeking their just redundancy entitlements, a claim the Labour Court has upheld no fewer than three times. It is time the Government intervened with Greencore to ensure that workers who worked hard in the industry over the past 30 years get proper and just compensation.

The Government's lack of planning and foresight represents a lost opportunity for the economy to secure a start in producing a native source of environmentally friendly fuel and to provide an alternative viable crop for our farming community. Also, the Government continues to fail to ensure that a small proportion of the money Greencore is getting from EU taxpayers is put towards paying proper redundancy payments for the workers of the Mallow factory.

After the closure of the Mallow beet factory, Cork County Council commissioned a study with the objective of providing a factual evaluation of the technical and financial viability of ethanol production from beet and wheat at the former sugar factory. The following areas were addressed in the study: Irish and international policy on renewable energy, ethanol market dynamics, the process and economics of ethanol production, the viability of the Mallow site for ethanol production and the macro-economic and environmental effects of ethanol production.

The European Union biofuel directive states that member states must replace 5.75% of petrol and diesel with biofuels by 2010. This would be the equivalent of 220 million litres of ethanol. Therefore, a market for fuel that could be produced from the sugar factory already existed and all that was needed was for the Minister to put a tax relief scheme in place to make the proposition viable.

The council study proved that the supply of wheat and beet would be available to the factory. Some 10,000 hectares were likely to be available for beet production and 12,000 hectares for wheat. These would have produced more than 220 million litres of ethanol. The level of economic support required would be 26 cent per litre produced from beet and 14 cent per litre produced from wheat. In total, it would only cost the Exchequer €40 million per annum to run the plant to full capacity. This support would enable reasonable prices of €40 per tonne for beet and €145 per tonne for wheat to be paid to farmers. Sugar beet grown for the production of ethanol would also provide an ideal rotation crop for cereals such as winter wheat and spring barley.

The ethanol production process would help our economy overcome significant dependence on a foreign energy supply and improve the balance of trade and payments in the energy area. Ethanol burns more cleanly than petrol and produces fewer emissions. A reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of up to two thirds can be achieved through the substitution of ethanol for petrol as a transport fuel.

Everybody and every area wins in the ethanol production scenario. The environment, the economy, security of supply and our balance of payments all benefit. Less carbon taxes will be payable, farmers will have a viable crop and industry will create environmentally friendly jobs. As far as I am concerned the ethanol proposal was a "no-brainer", but we have failed to act on it.

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