Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 48: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the number of hectares planted in the production of bio-fuels in each of the past six years; the breakdown of the crops planted; the number of hectares of each he expects to plant in 2009 and the breakdown of the crops planted; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20156/09]

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Energy crops are relatively new to Irish farmers and are being considered as an alternative to more conventional farm enterprises. The total area of energy crops in Ireland has increased steadily since 2003, supported by incentives introduced by the Government to stimulate cultivation and subsidies to increase the use of bio-fuel in the Irish transport market. In addition, the decoupling of direct payments from production has afforded farmers greater freedom to switch to alternative enterprises, such as energy crops, without reducing the value of their existing single farm payment entitlements. The main possibilities for growing energy crops in Ireland are oilseed rape, hemp, willow and miscanthus. The number of hectares planted increased from 137 hectares in 2003 to 8,700 hectares in 2007 and declined to 4,100 hectares in 2008. I have arranged to provide the Deputy with the full details of the crops planted since 2003. As they are tabulated it makes sense to provide them in that format.

The market for energy crops is still in its infancy in Ireland. The increase in production in 2007 is mainly attributable to strong demand for oilseeds in the pure plant oil and bio-diesel markets. The cultivation of miscanthus and willow also showed a marked increase in 2007 following the introduction of grants by the Department to aid establishment costs. The decline in energy crop cultivation in 2008 reflected the sharp rise in cereal production in Ireland in response to soaring grain prices. The demand for grain encouraged Irish tillage farmers to plant more wheat at the expense of oilseeds. The total area sown to oilseed declined from just under 8,000 hectares in 2007 to some 3,000 hectares in 2008.

The outlook for energy crops in 2009 should be roughly similar to 2008 with overall production estimated to be in the region of 4,500 hectares. Adverse weather conditions affected the autumn planting of oilseeds and production is not expected to increase beyond the 2008 figure of 3,000 hectares. The cultivation of miscanthus and to a lesser extent willow is expected to reach 1,400 hectares in line with pre-planting approvals issued by the Department under the bio-energy scheme.

P J Sheehan (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I am amazed at the Minister of State's reply. The question asked the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the number of hectares planted in the production of bio-fuels in each of the past six years, the breakdown of the crops planted and the number of hectares of each that he expects to be planted in 2009. In response to a similar question on 20 May 2008, the Minister provided a table of the number of hectares planted with crops for bio-energy purposes for each of the last six years. It was as follows: 2003, 137 hectares; 2004, 732; 2005, 2,590; 2006, 4,456.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputy is expected to ask a question.

P J Sheehan (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I am asking the question because the Minister of State is breaking from these figures completely. He is now back down to approximately 2,000 hectares for 2008. I am amazed to think that is all that has been planted for bio-fuels.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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A question, Deputy.

P J Sheehan (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I want to know from the Minister of State if we are going down the wrong road as far as these bio-energy crops are concerned. Will the Department do anything positive to correct that downward slide instead of achieving an increase in line with his green policy?

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy for his answer and his question.

P J Sheehan (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Well, answer it.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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It is good to look at all the information. I am sorry I cannot give the Deputy exactly what he is looking for because when the information was being collected it was presented in the form of a visual table. He will get it but it is unfortunate that he does not have it before him now. This is the end of a three-year scheme. The Deputy is right to ask the questions, including whether we are going in the right direction. These questions are also being asked in the Department.

P J Sheehan (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Yes.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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For example, there has been a good take-up in miscanthus, more so than willow. Anecdotally, it seems people felt that miscanthus was less of a long-term commitment and that it could be grubbed up. However, the horticultural experts tell me that it is quite difficult to do so. Once one has miscanthus one has it for a while. One needs to be used to it and be sure of what one is doing. Willow is easier to get rid of but because it seems more wood-like, people think it is more permanent. These are questions that people are facing up to. Edenderry has been carrying out an experiment on co-firing with miscanthus on a larger scale to see whether there is a market there. It appears, however, that has not been as successful as was expected. Perhaps willow, which has not been so widely taken up, would be more effective in that regard because it has the scope for use as wood pellets and wood chips. In addition, it has more well-established uses. We are in new territory.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I wish to allow a number of other Deputies to contribute.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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I, too, will be asking some of those questions.

P J Sheehan (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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What about willow?

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Have bio-fuels fallen down the political agenda? What is the policy directive coming from this Government currently in terms of prioritising bio-fuels? If the rate of hectares is falling, can we deduce that there is a reduced political priority? Will this arise as part of the review of the programme for Government, which is imminent?

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The programme for a new Government.

Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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As the acreage is dropping, the figures speak for themselves. There is no doubt about it, but why is it dropping? The political drive to get renewable energy into the system by making it viable is the key point because it is not considered viable. The Minister of State referred to the viability of miscanthus versus willow. There was a huge uptake in forestry when grants and incentives were there, but it has slowed down. It is a permanent 30-year cycle, so it has nothing to do with that. We hope to have a bio-energy initiative with Bord na Móna and Coillte. Until such time as landowners are convinced that growing renewable energy crops is viable, they will not do it. Is it possible to take from these figures what is glaringly obvious - that it is not viable? Does the Government propose to redirect policy towards it?

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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There are factors that have a bearing on the uptake and one, as Deputy Sherlock stated, is its economic viability. The recession has had many knock-on effects, one of which is the reduction in the price of oil. The viability of planting and processing a crop and getting a return for the labour means that naturally it will be difficult to compete with a product which has been lying in the ground collecting solar energy over millions of years and just needs to be pumped out and refined to be ready for use. The economic issues will change as oil becomes more expensive and the phase we are in at present is that we need to put the infrastructure in place, even though it is more costly at present, so that when oil becomes unaffordable we will have an infrastructure that can be expanded and the skills to do so.

We are in a difficult period because we have to fund this transition and getting money to fund such a transition is difficult in a recession. We are not at the ideal by a long shot; we need to appraise the viability in the current economic circumstances and consider how this fuel will be used. There have been experiments on turning miscanthus into briquettes to try to compete with the wood-chip element in the renewable bioenergy sector and apparently they have been reasonably successful - I have not seen the details. This is the level of trial taking place at present and it is part of the bioenergy action plan which aims to increase the use of bioenergy in the heat, CHP and transport markets to 2020. We work with the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources in this regard.