Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, to the House.

Róisín Garvey (Green Party)
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I thank the Minister for his time. I know that in his role, he travels all over the country and he is up the walls so I appreciate his time. My Commencement matter is fairly straightforward. I ask him to inform the House of what plans are in place to enable farmers to have small-scale anaerobic digester plants to enable them to create their own energy. We see efforts to build giant anaerobic digester plants that are causing lots of controversy in communities where there will be no massive community benefit. For example, in Gort, not far from where I live, there are huge concerns over the biogas plant. If we could expedite the ability of farmers to construct smaller scale anaerobic digesters with a few other farmers, it would mean there would be fewer objections, the money would stay in communities, and the farmers would have lower bills.

Ireland has 13 large biogas plants and the climate action plan sets a target of delivering 5.7 terawatt hours, TWh, of anaerobic digester-based energy. No schemes operate that offer enough support to make small-scale anaerobic digesters or small-scale plants economically viable in Ireland. There are 76 anaerobic digester plants in operation in Northern Ireland. The majority of these plants produce biogas and are farm-based, with on-site combined heat and power, CHP, generators. There is a pilot project being carried out by Teagasc in Grange. This is under construction and it will research environmental sustainability, the economics of biogas and its use in the gas bid or for other uses. Three farm-scale biogas demonstration projects are in development, funded through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, which I am sure the Minister is aware of. There is no timeline on those projects. Have they begun and is there any sign of results of any kind?

If we look to countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and France, there is a big precedent for small-scale biodigesters.I visited one in Kilkenny 25 years ago. I saw farmers coming in with slurry tanks and wondered what they were doing. They were heating the local hall. Seven farmers in Kilkenny were doing this 25 years ago so there is a precedent. They heated the local hall and the hall paid the farmers. It was a brilliant initiative.

Funding is needed to subsidise farmers to create their own. Gas would have to be used locally for heat, maybe for a local hall or local district heating system. It is not effective to turn the gas into electricity, as they have discovered in other countries.

I read in theIrish Farmers' Journalduring the week of yet another big company wanting to build another big anaerobic digestion factory. Big companies do not build small; they build big only. In many rural areas where things like windfarms are built, all it does is divide communities because some people benefit and others do not. We know it is not the best fit for communities in rural Ireland. We need to bring communities together, not cause separation. A small-scale anaerobic digestion facility subsidised by the State would benefit the whole community, and not just involve giving a few quid to the local GAA and soccer clubs to try to keep people quiet while they build monstrosities.

Our own domestic supply of gas from farmers has never been more needed than now. The Ukraine war has led to Irish people paying extortionate prices for imported fossil fuel-based gas. We need to see energy created by and for communities with real community benefit. Will the Minister commit to setting up clear guidance and subsidies to help farmers to create small-scale anaerobic digesters? We need to expedite this, instead of waiting for the Government to build new ones to try it all out. There is precedent in Ireland and abroad.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator for raising this Commencement matter. It is a topic both us of are excited about. We are at the precipice of seeking huge transformation and it will be driven largely by the farm families of Ireland.

Anaerobic digestion and the indigenous production of biomethane is a clear commitment within the climate action plan 2023. This plan sets a target of up to 5.7 TWh of biomethane, which will be a threefold increase on the ambition within the previous climate action plan. I emphasise that the delivery of the 5.7 TWh of indigenously produced biomethane remains an energy-led policy, while acknowledging the agriculture sector and farmers have a leadership role to play. The overall development of the sector, given its early but growing stage, will be primarily driven by appropriate energy policies and supports, which remain responsibility of the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications. The level of ambition is set in the climate action plan, which firmly recognises the important contribution of biomethane production to delivering renewable energy targets, decarbonising industry with a high thermal heat load and providing alternative land-use options for farmers.

Alongside opportunities for farm income and land-use diversification options for farmers, the anaerobic industry represents a pathway for farmers to reduce fertiliser usage through the increased availability of digestate which will also have positive climate change implications. Reaching the ambition of 5.7 TWh of biomethane is firmly rooted in the achievement of the sectoral emissions ceiling for agriculture.

My Department has a key regulatory role to play when using animal by-products as feedstock for anaerobic digestion. Animal by-products have an important role to play in development of our biomethane capacity and their use will help Ireland to develop an indigenous biomethane industry.

To build out an anaerobic digestion industry of scale to deliver on the climate action plan requires a multiplicity of stakeholders across government, farmers, businesses and regulators to come together to align policy, incentives, regulations and markets. This is why, together with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, we have committed to the development of a national biomethane strategy by quarter 3 of this year, to make it a priority to provide a strategic direction for the industry. This strategy will identify the necessary actions to deliver the 5.7 TWh. The strategy will be agri-led, farmer-centric and will contribute positively to the sectoral emissions ceiling for agriculture, as well as to the decarbonisation of the energy system. The strategy will focus on issues such as security and sustainability of feedstocks; demand-side considerations and end users; regulatory requirements and policy alignment; and financial supports, be they capital or operational in nature. It will also be cognisant of the wider community, with topics such as scale of plant and location of plants being addressed. That is something the Senator raised in her contribution. This strategy is being developed through a project steering group on anaerobic digestion and biomethane under the auspices of the task force on heat and the built environment, which is chaired by the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan.

In parallel and in recognition of the requirement for an operational support mechanism, a renewable heat obligation scheme will be introduced in 2024. This obligation will incentivise supplies of all fuels in the heat sector to ensure a certain proportion of the energy supplied is renewable. The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is carrying out a scoping exercise to develop options for the structure of the renewable heat obligation. We are going to see a decade of change for Irish agriculture but equally a decade of opportunity. Anaerobic digestion can be a viable opportunity that can work for farmers, the environment and our emissions reductions targets.

Róisín Garvey (Green Party)
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I thank the Minister for that information. He said the strategy for the 5.7 TWh “will be agri-led, farmer-centric and will contribute positively to the sectoral emissions ceiling". It is great that it will be agri-led. We want it to be led by farmers and, in general, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. It is part of the energy thing but has to be led by that Department.

I did not get any information on where the pilot project in Grange by Teagasc is, nor did I get information or an update on the three farm-scale biogas demonstration projects funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine under the European innovation partnership scheme.

If the Minister wants to do the renewable heat obligation scheme in 2024, we need workshops for farmers and information evenings. Farmers are asking me questions. They want to know when they will be asked to do this. How do they learn about it, having heard about it vaguely? We need to upskill and educate farmers, and maybe bring them to sites where this already exists. Farmers want to do this. Why would they not want to produce their own clean gas, as opposed to burning fossil fuel gas from Russia or Ukraine? To have a scheme in 2024, we need to start now with getting Teagasc, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine or the Irish Farmers Association to run workshops for farmers to help them to set up these small-scale anaerobic digesters.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for making time to come into the House to respond to this important issue. I congratulate him on the work he does.