Gareth Scahill (Fine Gael)
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While I have the Minister of State here, I will thank him for his recent help regarding the special area of conservation in Gorthaganny in Caher, west Roscommon, following the recent gorse fires. I thank him and his Department in that regard.

My question is on the national biomethane strategy. The Government published the national biomethane strategy in 2024. It sets out an ambitious scaling up from a few plants to 200 anaerobic digester facilities with an output of 5.7 TWh annually by 2030. The strategy is agriculture-led and farmer-centric and focused on using agricultural feedstocks like slurry and silage to create a new income stream for farmers. It outlines 25 key actions across five pillars: sustainability, demand for biomethane, bioeconomy and circular economy, economics, and enabling policy. Key supports include the upcoming renewable heat obligation to create market demand and capital grants for AD plant construction. The biogas and biomethane industry in Ireland offers significant advantages and opportunities including energy security, decarbonisation as we move away from fossil fuels, jobs and economic activity in rural areas, farm diversification in the production of silage and other feedstocks, water quality improvements, alternative organic fertilisers, and rural growth and development. Ireland's renewable heat obligation is a planned policy designed to significantly increase the use of renewable energy for heating across the country. The RHO is considered a crucial support mechanism for Ireland's broader climate targets including its ambitious biomethane strategy. It is expected to be implemented in late 2025 or early 2026. The Government has undertaken extensive consultation to finalise its design and ensure its smooth introduction.

Last autumn, with assistance from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine administered a capital grants support programme for biomethane plants. This was a 20% capital grant with a total budget of €40 million from RePowerEU funding. Some 18 projects were given letters of offer with a deadline for the completion of works of 31 December 2025. Only two or three of those projects have commenced as there is no market for biomethane because the Government is yet to publish and announce details of the renewable heat obligation, which is required to drive the market for biomethane produced and give investment certainty to the funders. I would appreciate it if the Minister of State could make a statement on the Government's commitment to the biomethane strategy and confirm the timeline and steps for the introduction of the renewable heat obligation.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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I am taking this Commencement matter on behalf of the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, Darragh O'Brien. I am delighted to see this issue being raised in the Seanad because I see it as a key way for agriculture in particular to play its part in renewable energy provision. I always point to the example of the Timoleague anaerobic digester in my neck of the woods. It almost acts as a co-operative, where the local piggery brings manure as an input into the anaerobic digester, the local distillery supplies waste grain as an input and other waste products also go in as inputs, and gas is produced to provide energy for homes. Digestate, which is a valid form of agricultural fertiliser, is produced as well. It is the perfect example of the circular economy and something I would love to see rolled out, so I accept the urgency of this.

The Government has committed to delivering up to 5.7 TWh of indigenously produced biomethane by 2030. Delivery of this target and the use of biomethane within our energy system will have multiple cross-sectoral benefits for Ireland’s economy, energy security and emissions profile. A first step to realising this ambition was the publication of the national biomethane strategy. In partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the strategy was published in May 2024. The strategy sets out a pathway to achieving Ireland’s biomethane production target, addresses the challenges that need to be overcome and outlines the necessary supports and policy enablers needed to drive growth across the sector.

Implementation of the national biomethane strategy is an ongoing process of collaboration across key Departments and agencies and the biomethane implementation group has been established to oversee implementation of the strategy and delivery of the 25 key strategic actions to ensure the necessary infrastructure and supports are in place to support development of an indigenous biomethane industry of scale. Chaired by the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment, with close support from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the group reports directly to the heat and built environment task force on ongoing progress. The group continues to engage with action owners and key stakeholders to monitor implementation and finalisation of a full progress report, which will provide an update on key deliverables, including publication of the biomethane charter. The development of the biomethane information hub and communications strategy is under way. It is expected that this progress report will be published on gov.ie shortly.

The Government has also agreed to the introduction of a renewable heat obligation, RHO, to ensure the increased use of renewable fuel types across the full heating sector, with the primary aim of supporting the achievement of Ireland's heating and cooling targets at EU level. The development of the RHO is a key priority for the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment and the necessary analysis and impact assessment that has informed the design of the RHO and the RHO high-level scheme has now been finalised. The Department is drafting the RHO heads of Bill for submission to the Government shortly and, once approved by the Government, will begin drafting of the RHO primary legislation to underpin the introduction.

The Senator is right that the RHO legislation is needed and needs to be progressed quickly. It would be a shame if we missed that opportunity in terms of the December deadline for anaerobic digesters to avail of EU funding. The direction of travel is going in the right direction, though. There was no biomethane or anaerobic digestion strategy 12 or 18 months ago but there is now. I agree with the Senator that it is a key way of driving economies in rural areas, reducing emissions and making digesters sustainable.

Gareth Scahill (Fine Gael)
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I appreciate that this is not the Minister of State's brief. The opportunity for energy independence cannot be something we let go. I have some feedback. A leading industry body has warned that biomethane production in Ireland must be incentivised and supported ahead of cheaper imported biomethane. The current Government target for indigenous production of biomethane is 5.7 TWh each year but the Irish Bioenergy Association has highlighted that there is a need to urgently address the fundamental issue of fraudulent activity in the non-EU bio-liquid supply chain. This is something we need to be aware of.

The Minister of State obviously will not know this, but since I came to the Chamber, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Heydon, has announced a €10 million fund for projects under the bioeconomy demonstration initiative as part of the just transition. I hope that solutions will materialise as the day goes on.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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Fair play to the Senator. He got to announce that instead of me. That is some going. The news is welcome. Farmers want to play their part in reducing emissions. The bulk of the input into an anaerobic digester is coming from farming and we are getting renewable gas and electricity to power thousands of homes, so I have always felt that those emissions reductions should be attributed to the agricultural sector. That is not the case at the moment but it is something I would love to see. We need to ramp it up. We have far too few anaerobic digesters. When one compares our biomethane production to that of Germany and France, which have hundreds and sometimes thousands of anaerobic digesters, we can see it is a key energy source. Sometimes in Ireland, we are on red alert in terms of energy and electricity and this is because of lack of production of energy. Anaerobic digestion could play a key role in that regard. We are also importing gas, so this could reduce our reliance on international gas.

I commend the Senator on raising the matter.