Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ireland is lagging behind in any meaningful engagement with farmers and producers in developing biomethane, which could be used for fuel for heavy goods vehicles as an alternative to fossil fuels. There are easy ways to help the process of anaerobic digestion, which is common in Germany, Denmark and the UK. The process mixes slurry with maize and silage, leaving the materials to ferment and form methane gas that can be stored. Sections of the country have finishing units where animals are housed and waste can be acquired easily. There are also clusters of pig farms that could also be used for waste collection. These facilities could also provide a means to produce renewable heat and gas.

In the UK, 15% of gas consumed could be made from sewage, food waste and other organic waste from breweries. The US has claimed that the waste from biomass could provide natural gas for 50% of American homes. There are plenty of opportunities in Ireland for similar processes in Ireland and more must be done to consider such practice in agriculture. How can the Department justify the lack of support in this regard?

The renewable energy feed-in tariff, REFIT, scheme to incentivise microgeneration covers small-scale generators, particularly where domestic customers produce their own electricity and export the surplus to the national grid. With the installation of solar panels and other technology, Ireland has committed to generate at least 16% of energy from renewable sources by 2020. However, we are not on track to meet this deadline. Ireland is the second lowest in the table of countries meeting their renewable energy targets in the EU and it is also second lowest in the table of member states producing renewable heat. A simple solution to this would be to reopen the REFIT scheme by early 2021, thus encouraging homeowners and farmers to install solar panels. The maximum allowed should be 70% rather than 50% of roof size.

In the past the volume of energy generated from home and farm owners was so small that it did not justify the cost of using panels as there was not a high enough return to meet a commitment to the national grid. People found the process of connecting to the grid with microgeneration slow and cumbersome. More needs to be done so targets can be met.

It is not just about blaming the farmers and the farming community. I told the Minister, Deputy Bruton, earlier that farmers are blamed for everything. As I said previously, it usually took one generation of farmers to rebuild to ensure the next generation survived. At the moment, it is going generation, by generation, by generation. Those in the farming sector are doing their bit but all the policies and regulations put in place by the Government make it too difficult for farmers and make sure that they do not make anything from the process. It should simplify it, invest in farmers and incentivise.

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