Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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117. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his plans to make biofuel more readily available through fuel pumps in retail garages; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22940/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The 2009 Renewable Energy Directive sets all Member States a binding target that at least 10% of the energy used in the transport sector must come from renewable sources by 2020. Ireland aims to meet this target mainly through the use of sustainable biofuels with electric vehicles also making a contribution. In this regard, biofuels are readily available in Ireland and regulations on fuel standards, introduced by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government in 2011, and which transpose the Fuel Quality Directive, permit the sale of petrol with up to 10% bioethanol, and diesel with up to 7% biodiesel.

Currently, when petrol and diesel are purchased at the petrol pumps, they contain a certain amount of biofuel which has been blended into the petrol or diesel.

The Biofuels Obligation Scheme was introduced in July 2010 as the primary means through which Ireland would meet the transport target and is the principal support for the uptake of biofuels in Ireland.

The scheme, administered by the National Oil Reserves Agency, is certificate based and, since January 2013, an obligated road transport fuel supplier, at the end of each calendar year, must hold six biofuel obligation certificates for every 94 litres of petroleum based fuel it has placed on the market. Certificates are only issued for biofuels that have been demonstrated to have complied with the sustainability criteria of the 2009 Renewable Energy Directive. In 2014, approximately 167 million litres of biofuels were placed on the Irish transport fuel market blended with petroleum products. Of this, approximately 25 million litres were produced in Ireland, all of which was from waste materials such as used cooking oil and category 1 tallow. Further increases to the obligation rate will be required in the context of achieving our 2020 target and I intend to consult on a proposed increase shortly.