Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will come back to the Senator with specific written updates on the two points she has raised. Overall, we want to step this out promptly and get our national strategy together by quarter 3 of this year. That is kicking off and the consultants are being appointed who will put it together. The industry is looking for national direction and policy clarity on stepping it forward. It is about producing energy. Biomethane is energy so the Department of energy will have a significant role. We want to ensure that when plants are established, farmers are at the centre of how they are run and communities benefit from them. The strategy will address and take account of all of that, set the pathway for it and look at the policy and financial supports necessary to make sure that it works and that, if plants operate, they are viable into the future. It will also address the type of financial infrastructure that will provide the certainty to bring about that investment.

The climate action plan we introduced last year has the ambition that by the end of this decade 10% of natural gas used in homes across the country and 10% of our national gas requirement will come from inside the farm gate, generated in anaerobic digestion plants. There is exciting potential. It is a big logistical and planning task and will require a significant financial contribution but it is all doable. We want to make it happen as quickly as possible. I thank the Senator for raising this matter and I look forward to continuing to work with her and to bringing this forward.