Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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34. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he or his Department have carried out any research into the cost-benefit analysis of using waste-to-energy facilities as part of our future energy strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16281/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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Ireland’s energy policies recognise the importance of waste as an energy resource and both the Alternative Energy Requirement and Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff schemes support electricity generated from anaerobic digestion, landfill gas and the biodegradable element of municipal solid waste. The process of identifying the renewable energy technologies to be supported considered the cost and wider environmental benefits that could be delivered by utilising waste as an energy resource. These are now established technologies and are making a contribution to Ireland’s renewable energy targets.

Ireland is regarded as having a stable and favourable investment environment for renewable energy production and the existing feed-in tariff is a very cost effective tool to support renewable energy production, as outlined in a report published by the Council of European Energy Regulators in January 2015.

My Department is considering the appropriateness of a new support scheme for renewable electricity, from 2016 onwards, and will examine the available technologies, their cost effectiveness and the level of support required. Any new scheme would be subject to State Aid clearance. The initial public consultation will commence in the coming weeks.

Waste materials can also be used in the production of biofuels to displace fossil fuels in the transport sector. Provisional figures for 2014 indicate that almost 59% of the biofuel placed on the market in Ireland, through the Biofuels Obligation Scheme, was produced from waste materials and residues such as used cooking oil and tallow.

In terms of further developing waste as an energy resource, the draft Bioenergy Plan recommends that the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government would endeavour to optimise the availability of waste for energy and that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine would continue its support for innovative energy uses for animal by-products.