John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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531. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if an Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, licence is required for the development of an anaerobic digester; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15112/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The requirement to obtain a licence from the Environmental Protection Agency to operate an anaerobic digester is dependent on the nature and scale of the activity proposed. Under article 11 of the Waste Management (Facility Permit and Registration) Regulations, 2007, S.I. No. 821 of 2007, the power to make a determination on the need for a waste licence lies with the Agency. Where a person seeking to develop such a facility is unsure of the need for a waste licence, a waste facility permit or a certificate of registration, or indeed whether such an authorisation is required at all, an applicant shall make a request to the Agency to determine the question in advance of the submission of an application for a waste authorisation. Similarly, where a local authority has received an application for a waste facility permit or a certificate of registration and it has doubts as to the appropriate waste authorisation or indeed whether a waste authorisation is required, under article 11 of S.I. No. 821 of 2007, it must also make a written request to the Agency to determine the question.

Under section 60(3) of the Waste Management Act 1996, I am precluded from exercising any power or control in relation to the performance by the Agency or a Local Authority, in particular circumstances, of a statutory function vested in it.