Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

I will answer a couple of the direct queries before tackling the nub of the issue. Senator Burke asked about licences but there are no licences for bio-fuel production currently. Under the mineral oil tax relief scheme there are 18 companies which are able to facilitate production of bio-fuels. A large number of them have gone into production and five have plants here. One of these, Green Biofuels Ireland, has been mentioned by a number of contributors and it is an excellent example of how we can produce bio-fuels from waste. It employs 23 people and is a perfect win-win solution. It solves a waste problem and is assisting employment in an area where we have had difficulties. We all have a common and agreed sense that we must increase employment potential, protect existing jobs and create new opportunities. We can do it.

The Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, was listening and indicated that we had to consider different options. He did not rule anything out and we have not done so in this debate. We have looked at overseas examples and the UK regime was cited on a number of occasions. As I understand it, one of the considerations there is that it will have many plants producing ethanol from wheat which would already meet standards we are talking about.

It has been a very useful debate and in the Seanad we have been able to tease out an important issue. I am very happy to come back to the Seanad having considered the arguments. On the basis of the discussion we have had, we can agree to act to promote indigenous industry.

My priority is to encourage growth in the use of bio-fuels in Ireland and specifically in the development of the indigenous bio-fuels industry. The main premise of our obligation is to underpin the developments of the Irish bio-fuels market. I wish to ensure those who have already made a foray into bio-fuel production continue to develop their businesses, such as the one in New Ross. We wish to protect those jobs and see other production facilities set up with a sound business case from the very start.

I confirm on that basis that the Bill when presented on Report Stage in the Seanad will contain an amendment which will allow for the introduction of this type of measure by order. Making the type of amendment put forward by a number of Senators previously is not straightforward and as the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, outlined last week, inserting a required standard for fuel is effectively a technical regulation as set out by Directive 98/34/EC. This requires us to amend a copy of the draft regulation - the legislation in this case - to a detailed form and send it to Brussels for comment. The waiting period in this regard is three months. During this time we cannot pass or enact legislation containing this text. If another member state objects, a further three months is automatically added to the waiting period while the Commission examines the complaint. Were we to attempt to insert the explicit provision in this Bill, it would substantially delay the coming into force of the obligation because it would most likely be October before we could hope to have the legislation passed. This could have caused considerable commercial difficulties for some of the companies to which reference has been made and which are already operating here.

I have indicated that the bio-fuel obligation will be introduced by July and I do not wish to impede progress further by going down the route of inserting fuel standards at this point in the legislative process. Instead, I propose to amend the text of the Bill on Report Stage in order to provide the Minister with the power to make an order specifying the fuel standards that will be required to apply under the obligation. We will move ahead with the Bill on that basis. When the legislation is enacted, I can draw up a statutory instrument in which will be set down the measure required around specifying a Taric code. This can then be put through the notification procedure in due course. My officials are working with the Office of the Attorney General with regard to preparing the text of the amendment for Report Stage in the Seanad.

While I do not accept the amendments tabled by Senators, we have come up with a mechanism which achieves the same effect. I hope Senators, in their wisdom, with their great intelligence, breadth of knowledge, understanding, human glorification, etc.-----