Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response and I appreciate that he cannot get into the belly of what I had to say. I expect the Minister to respond more appropriately to what I have said.

The Edenderry power plant permission was granted after much deliberation by the courts and it is a blueprint and precedent by which I expect the other two applications for co-fuelling to be successful.

I hope the Government and its representatives respond as soon as practicable on the following matter about which I seek clarity. There is a commitment to co-fuel with biomass until 2028 at which time biomass will be exclusively used. That indicates that harvesting can continue until, let us say, 2026 and the stocks would be sufficient thereafter. I was only made aware at the end of a just transition forum meeting last week that four bogs have been suspended. These are the feeder bogs for the three power plants. That would seem to indicate that the discussions with the Department responsible are not likely to yield the result the plants would have hoped. That threatens the viability of the plants, the jobs within them and the communities they serve. Information about that should be forthcoming to me as soon as possible, hopefully next week, because I want to know the detail of the discussions, what has resulted from them and what now is Government policy if it contradicts what was there previously. That is not even to mention the wide-ranging issues surrounding the greater effect and impact of the ongoing decarbonisation which has, as I said, gone from acceleration to a speed wobble with an almighty crash waiting to happen. Those who will suffer are my constituents and not those from any other part of the country.

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