Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The 2009 EU renewable energy directive set Ireland a legally binding target of meeting 16% of our energy requirements from renewable sources by 2020. This is not without its challenges, as I have said, particularly in the areas of heat and transport. The potential of the bioenergy sector to make a significant contribution in this regard is well recognised. I published a draft bioenergy plan in 2014 which was, in part, designed to capture this potential through the development and introduction of measures to encourage the growth of Ireland’s biomass and bioenergy sectors. One key demand-side measure identified in the plan was the introduction of a renewable heat incentive, RHI. Following analysis of various options, including increased carbon taxes, the option with the least modelled cost is an appropriately focused renewable heat incentive targeted at larger commercial and industrial heat users, at least in the first instance, and not at the domestic sector.

As part of the process to design an effective RHI scheme, my Department published the first of three consultations in July this year to identify a range of technologies in the heating sector. Currently, all responses to this first consultation are under review. Two further consultations are expected in 2016 in order to finalise the new RHI support scheme subject to Government approval and state aid clearance from the European Commission.

The current renewable energy feed in tariff, REFIT, 3 support scheme is designed to incentivise the use of biomass and bioenergy. This support scheme has already stimulated growth in the Irish biomass sector and the SEAI have reported that in 2014 the overall use of biomass grew by 13.2%. There is little doubt that shifting from fossil fuels to sustainable biomass and bioenergy more generally can help reduce overall emissions and tackle climate change.

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