Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour) | Oireachtas source

My response is to the question that was put: "The need for the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to clarify the Government’s position in relation to gasification plants, and how this fits with the Government’s 2020 targets."

Ireland currently has an ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction target under the 2009 EU effort-sharing decision for each year between 2013 and 2020. Under the decision, we must limit the growth of greenhouse gas emissions to 20% below 2005 levels in the period 2013 to 2020. In terms of renewable energy, Ireland has been set a legally binding target of meeting 16% of our energy requirements from renewable sources by 2020. We aim to meet this target by using renewable resources for 40% of electricity demand, with 10% of transport fuelled from such sources and 12% of heat.

Attaining the greenhouse gas emission reduction target requires a concerted national effort, and the Government has responded energetically to the challenge. Following on from the adoption of the national policy position on climate action and low-carbon development in 2014, and in anticipation of enactment of the Climate Bill, which is currently before the Oireachtas, work has begun on preparing a national low-carbon transition and mitigation plan.

A primary objective of the national mitigation plan will be to bring a clear and strong focus to both the challenges and the opportunities of transitioning to a low-carbon future, and the importance of a forward-looking and cost-effective national transition agenda. The plan will also track the implementation of steps already under way and identify additional measures in the longer term, including in the area of emerging technologies.

With respect to renewable energy, our national energy policies recognise the importance of other renewable sources such as biodegradable waste. In this regard, both the alternative energy requirement, AER, and the renewable energy feed-in tariff, REFIT, schemes support electricity generated from anaerobic digestion, landfill gas and the biodegradable element of municipal solid waste.

In terms of further developing waste as an energy resource, the draft national bioenergy plan, published last year, recommends optimising the availability of waste for energy and continued support for innovative energy uses for animal by-products. Furthermore, analysis underpinning the draft bioenergy plan demonstrates that an additional bioenergy-focused measure in the heat sector would represent the most cost-effective means of meeting a number of our policy goals. In this regard, I understand it is the intention of my colleague, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, subject to further Government approval and State aid clearance, to introduce a renewable heat incentive in 2016. Research suggests there is a potentially significant role for biogas and biomethane in the transport sector. However, I understand that more detailed economic analysis of the supply chains, from production through to distribution and use, would be helpful to guide future policy.

In terms of the Senator's reference to gasification plants, it is important also to outline the role of waste policy. National waste policy is predicated on the management of waste in line with the waste hierarchy as set out in Article 4 of the waste framework directive of 2008. Gasification and incineration with energy recovery occupy the same tier of the waste hierarchy, called "other recovery", and national waste policy does not favour one particular technology over the other in this instance. Similarly, while the waste management plans that were recently launched by the regional groupings of local authorities support the development of up to 300,000 tonnes of future additional thermal recovery capacity at a national level, the plans do not differentiate between different thermal recovery technologies.