Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I ask the Minister to excuse my hoarse voice as I make my contribution. I hope he can understand what I am saying. The contributions to date have been interesting and wide ranging. I listened with interest to the Minister's party colleague, Senator Ó Brolcháin – I hope my pronunciation is correct – give us the example of the oil being used as a fuel by Galway City Council. The Leas-Chathaoirleach will be aware that possibly the first person to use a waste oil product in a vehicle was the former Cathaoirleach and Leas-Chathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann, Charles McDonald. Another former Senator who owned a number of chip shops in Cork city was thought to be one of the suppliers of the waste oil to Senator McDonald in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Most of Senator McDonald's colleagues thought his proposal for running his second-hand Mercedes on chip oil was daft but the vehicle brought him regularly and safely from County Laois to the House and, therefore, he was a pioneer in that respect. The legislation is welcome, and as Senator O'Reilly said, in his usual fashion of fine prose, Fine Gael supports the legislation but we have a number of questions. The most significant issue relating to the Bill is how to generate the maximum volume of bio-fuels from domestic resources. In other words, how can it be ensured available land will provide the maximum volume of bio-fuel? When the former Fine Gael leader, James Dillon, served as Minister for Agriculture he recalled a famous saying about the expansion of agriculture production in the 1940s: "One more cow, one more sow and one more acre under the plough". It was a simple slogan that worked. We must ask how we can put more acreage into bio-fuel production.

Senators Quinn, O'Malley and others highlighted the food versus fuel debate, which is interesting. Fine land is available for agriculture production. However, as a result of set aside policies imposed by the EU or farming practices in some parts of the country that are not as good as in others, a substantial amount of land is not fully utilised and it could be diverted to bio-fuel production without affecting food production. It will be necessary for the Minister to engage in a detailed dialogue with his colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, in advance of the serious negotiations that will shortly commence about the future funding of Irish agriculture via the Common Agricultural Policy and related programmes and to try to ensure maximum assistance will be available to encourage farmers to grow energy crops.

The excellent document, which all of us received from the Oireachtas library and research service, outlines the background to the Bill, various ideas and interesting statistics on elephant grass and other energy crops. However, solutions are available and they can be applied to lands in Ireland provided the Government can get the financial equation right. The sugar beet industry was shut down a number of years ago. Ireland produced sugar from the early part of the previous century and, tragically, five years ago the Government made a decision in conjunction with the European Commission to shut down the sugar industry. There was a great deal of hope, expectation and optimism that sugar beet could be used effectively as an alternative crop to produce bioethanol. The people of Mallow and Carlow had hoped the disused sugar factories could be used for the production of energy. Sadly, that did not come to pass but a number of people have ideas and proposals. I presume they have been in contact with the Minister and his Department but we must try to encourage them. Ireland was able to grow top class sugar better and other fodder crops which can be used for bio-fuel production.

The Government has not given sufficient attention to this option over the past two or three years and it is important the Minister liaises with the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to see what options exist. The domestic agriculture industry faces enormous challenges. Farm incomes have reduced significantly, dairy prices have almost fallen through the floor while tillage prices have been disastrous. Huge challenges face Irish farmers but, at the same time, there is a need to produce energy crops. It would be nice if these two problems could be examined to marry them into a solution. Significant funding is available and I make this point regularly when speaking to farming groups. The EU continues to be the best friend of Irish agriculture. It has a significant funding commitment to Ireland, which will be maintained into the future. There may be adjustments but we must ask ourselves how we can use the funding to keep farmers farming and the land productive. We must observe our food obligations from a food security perspective but a significant proportion of our land could be used for energy crop production and the Minister will have to give a lead in this regard.

I welcome the Bill in that it will not only serve as a stark reminder to energy providers but it will also place a stark obligation on them to produce bio-fuels, which is a positive first step. The second step from a domestic and rural perspective is to ensure energy crops are produced on our land. The technology, land, farmers and machinery and history of bio-fuel production are in place but a further push is needed. It would be disappointing, as previous speakers said, if the 4% obligation was entirely met by imports. Some years ago, a biodiesel plant was proposed for north Cork and one of the major objections was the fear that the vast majority of product required to refine the biodiesel would be imported and not produced locally. The challenge we face in the legislation is to ensure maximum domestic production.

We will debate these issues further on Committee Stage. The Minister's key challenge is his work with the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to put the grant structure in place and I look forward to that debate. I wish him well with this important and necessary legislation. It is doable but domestic production must be kept at the top of the agenda and if we manage to do that, we can turn this legislation into a win win. Not many Bills like this come before the House. Generally one side wins while the other is defeated or makes concessions. This legislation is win win if the Minister strikes the correct balance to meet our obligation while maximising bio-fuel production on the land, which will be good for the consumer, the farmer and the environment. I look forward to the Minister's work in advancing that set of aspirations.