Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this issue. People around the country have invested a large amount of money in growing miscanthus, but they are worried about the future of the industry which may be at risk. The fear is that the sector is in jeopardy and it is believed that the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has not adjusted the REFIT scheme to allow the entire crop to be sold to the Edenderry power station in the coming weeks. The biggest difficulty is that approximately 300 farmers have invested a significant amount of money in the sector in recent years to develop the industry and grow almost 6,000 acres of miscanthus.

Rightly or wrongly, there was a belief that the farmers concerned would have an outlet for this crop when it was ready to be harvested. It now appears this outlet, through the REFIT programme or any other scheme, is not available. Many people have invested heavily in this crop in the belief they were securing their future. Although almost 100 jobs are associated with the crop from the growers' perspective, they have been informed the renewable energy feed in tariff, REFIT, scheme will come into being only in 2015. While I am delighted the Minister is present in the Chamber to reply to this matter, more than 300 farmers, who are located in nearly every community, but in my own and in west Limerick in particular, have bought into this. They have planted a crop about which there always was an expectation that the outlet for it would be through Bord na Móna and its Edenderry plant. However, this has failed to come to pass and there is a belief among those who invested in this crop that the Department is not coming up trumps in this regard. I believe I have set out the issue without waxing lyrical on it because people are concerned about their investment and their future. The Minister might clarify the position for me.

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