Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this Bill. We must provide as many alternatives to oil as possible. The Bill is a response to the European Union directive which stipulates that 10% of transport fuel must be supplied from renewable resources by 2020. This is an opportunity for us to engage in the direct production of bio-fuels. Unfortunately, it seems that, at least initially, we will be replacing imported oil or gas with imported bio-fuel produced either in Europe or possibly even in South America. Some of my colleagues, including Deputy Neville, have gone into the technicalities of the Bill in great detail. I propose to focus on the question of how we are using the opportunities available to us to provide Irish-produced products.

I recently carried out an examination of what was happening to waste plastic in the State only to find that the vast majority is being transported all the way to China instead of being turned into oil for use at home. I was pleased to see in a recent press report that Cynar Recycling Limited in Portlaoise has opened a plant costing €6 million to turn mixed plastic into a synthetic fuel and intends to build further plants across Europe. Its Irish plant will require only 3,000 tonnes of plastic initially. According to Government figures, 50,000 tonnes of waste plastic comes from the waste recycling groups annually. The system proposed by Cynar has been in operation elsewhere for several years. For instance, the PlastOil plant in Switzerland is using 10,000 tonnes per annum having been in operation on a commercial basis for the last three years. This system is proven and is just one example of how we can better use our waste in order to supply alternative energy and provide employment.

We must examine as an issue of priority how the bio-fuel industry is structured and supported in other countries across the European Union.

Last year the sub-committee of the British-Irish Parliamentary Association produced an in-depth study of different forms of alternative energy. One of our most interesting trips was not to Switzerland or anywhere like that, but to Donegal and Derry. On one side of the Border, in Derry, the industry is viable and workable, and waste from the city is used to generate the necessary forests and plants to provide the energy. We must question why we are not using the same mechanisms here. We visited units in Donegal, and they were finding the situation much more difficult. There was much less support available.

We must, as a priority, examine how different countries throughout the European Union support the necessary structures to allow alternative energies such as biomass to work. It is strange that there are different support structures in a supposed Common Market. There is one approach in Germany, another in France and yet another in Denmark and Britain.

My colleague, Deputy Simon Coveney spoke at length on the Bill. He said Ireland should be brave enough not to go the same way as the UK, even if it caused problems on the Border such as fuel smuggling. I warn Deputy Coveney that I have a fairly strong knowledge of the problems that smuggling causes on the Border. For the past 40 years, the washing and smuggling of fuel across the Border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic has been significant and was ignored for too long. I would not like any structures to be put in place that would encourage that type of thing.

As someone who lives in County Monaghan, I note that tillage farming is not a possibility there. Deputy Dan Neville and other Members mentioned some of the crops that can be grown, but those would not be suitable for the Cavan-Monaghan area. However, there is a great opportunity in the tillage areas in the midlands and the south to produce and manufacture ethanol in this country. That would need some European support or a change in structures to ensure it would be viable. We cannot go on indefinitely depending on sugar cane from South America or other places.

We need to proceed with caution. We should double-check how other countries organise vibrant and profitable bio-fuel production operations involving farmers and local businesses. It is vital that the Minister makes certain that whatever is needed to ensure that Ireland produces its own bio-fuel is dealt with before the Bill is finalised.

The fact that we import 95% of all the gas and oil we use makes us very vulnerable in any situation. If something were to happen to the gas pipelines at Moffat in Scotland, for instance, we could be left without gas or electricity. There is no doubt the price of oil will increase significantly, especially if there is any increase in world trade. In that context it is vital we use any energy we can produce at home.

In the years when the country believed there was plenty of money and we did not need to utilise our own resources, I questioned the then Minister for Agriculture, Deputy Joe Walsh, on the logic of paying for the storage and exportation of our meat and bone meal to Germany where it was used in biomass plants to produce cheap energy. If any effort had been made, that product could have been utilised with very little effort in some of our existing electricity power stations.

To that end we must consider why biomass plants - especially anaerobic digesters - are in place on farms all over Europe, in countries such as Germany. Under the present regulations in this country, such plants are not viable. That is due to lack of any grant support and more especially to lack of access to the electricity grid at a reasonable price. Some of those issues are not directly related to the Bill, but they are all relevant to meeting our EU obligations on energy and carbon. I urge the Minister to re-examine the access and support systems.

When the British-Irish Parliamentary Association examined the situation, the results were startling. There is a need to reconsider how we can utilise energy produced in this country.

In my own county, poultry is a major issue. I tried for 12 years or so, with the help of others, to get a biomass plant going there. However, there were all sorts of objections on the basis that the plant contained an incinerator. Some of that poultry litter is now being pressed in Northern Ireland and sent to a similar plant in Scotland - the type of plant I wanted built just outside Monaghan town.

Some of us, although we are not members of the Green Party, have had those ideas for years. I started my efforts at Government level in Brussels approximately 13 years ago. We got the funds out of Brussels eventually. However, we met with objections from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in Ireland. The Department owned a site outside Monaghan town, and they agreed that that would be the site for the biomass plant when it got the go-ahead. However, when we got the go-ahead, the Department said the site - and all its property - had been sold. If the Minister went to that site on the Armagh road outside Monaghan today, he would see that not one inch of the area concerned has been sold or utilised since. It was not just local objections that prevented the plant being built, but lack of effort at Government level at that time to see the project through. That is just one example.

In Cavan, we are faced with a major issue regarding Quinn Insurance Limited. In one way, that is irrelevant to this discussion, but it is relevant in other ways. There are massive pig units throughout County Cavan, and major problems will arise for them in the next 12 to 18 months when the nitrate regulations become tighter. I beg the Minister to re-examine the situation and consider how those units can be supported to put in anaerobic digesters of the type that are being used throughout Europe, so they will be financially viable. The problems are the lack of grant money, and the difficulties involved in linking up to the Electricity Supply Board and getting a proper return from it for the surplus energy.

Each unit can do three things. It can utilise the waste that is produced - which should be used as fertiliser, but that is not allowed under regulations. It can produce homegrown energy, and it can produce some jobs, which are badly needed in that area. I urge the Minister to re-examine the systems that are in place. I know the issue is not relevant to the Bill, but we have to think beyond the bend at present to ensure that structures are in place to produce an industry, lower the carbon problems and get the issue going. The carbon tax, introduced a week or ten days ago, has serious consequences for farmers. I ask the Minister to consider how it might be dealt with in a positive and constructive way.

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