Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

What I am trying to get across to the Minister is that while converting to biomass is great, we are only doing more damage if we are hauling it thousands of miles and levelling forests in other countries. I welcome that Bord na Móna has abandoned the plan to build a wood pellet plant in the US to feed plants in Ireland. Apart from the carbon miles on such imports, the environmental implications meant it would have been a crazy enterprise from day one.

Biomass must be grown in Ireland. There is an opportunity to do so on land that is not suitable for tillage. There are thousands of acres of such land across north Offaly, Laois, Westmeath and, I am sure, Roscommon. While travelling through that area down the years, I have seen land that is not good for arables but can grow willow and other crops that can be used to generate renewable energy and create employment. We must start creating a native biomass industry. The miscanthus scheme was a disaster and there were only four applications in respect of the willow scheme in 2015. What analysis has there been of which crop grown on marginal land is best for the sequestration of carbon?

What work is being done with Coillte, Bord na Móna, the ESB and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine? Farmers are burning straw and bushes all over the place, which is biomass. In addition, forestry thinnings are not being utilised properly. We need to join up those pieces and start to utilise biomass in a native industry, in addition to getting farmers on marginal land to grow willow and other crops for renewable energy.

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