Written answers

Thursday, 14 December 2017

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Rural Development Programme

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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543. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to make an amendment to the 2014-20 rural development programme to enable grant aid to the installation of anaerobic digesters on farms (details supplied). [53644/17]

Photo of Michael CreedMichael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Ireland’s Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 will deliver funding of some €4 billion to the agricultural sector and rural areas generally over the lifetime of the Programme. The Programme’s content and design was formulated in light of previous experience and performance and reflects the outcome of extensive stakeholder consultation and does not include support for anaerobic digestors on farms under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme II (TAMS II).

TAMS II has been very successful to date in terms of uptake with the number of approvals that have issued exceeding 11,600.  All of these approvals represent committed expenditure and until such time as these approvals are acted upon or expire the budget for TAMS must include provision for the potential expenditure involved.

Of the applications approved just over 3,000 payment claims have been received to date. Payment claims submitted continue to be paid on an ongoing basis.  All participants who have completed approved works have been urged to submit their payment claims immediately to facilitate early payment.  Until the approvals issued to applicants are acted upon and payment claims are submitted or expire without a payment claim being submitted the budgetary position is that additional investment items cannot be accommodated within the RDP budget.

Under the Rural Development Programme 2000-2006 a Pilot Waste Processing Facilities Scheme provided funding of €4 million in order to grant-aid the installation of anaerobic digestors on ten Irish farms (i.e. 10 x €400,000). Two projects were completed and a further two have been given extensions to undertake the work by mid 2018. Both projects will be nationally funded if completed.

On the broader issue of supporting renewable energy, the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment leads in terms of Ireland’s renewable energy policy and oversees the Renewable Electricity Feed-in Tariff (REFIT) schemes. These Schemes are the principal means of supporting renewable electricity generators for renewable energy exported to the grid. The schemes operate by guaranteeing a minimum price for renewable energy generation over a 15 year period. The technologies supported include onshore wind energy, hydroelectricity, landfill gas, waste-to-energy and biomass technologies, including anaerobic digestion. Electricity and heat produced from anaerobic digestion (AD) are supported under the REFIT 3 scheme.

The Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment is currently developing a Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) which is being designed to assist Ireland in meeting its renewable energy contributions out to 2030. The economic analysis to underpin this scheme included an appraisal of a broad range of renewable electricity generating technologies including onshore and offshore wind, solar PV, ocean energy technologies and bioenergy technologies including Anaerobic Digestion. This appraisal will ensure that the new scheme delivers value for money for energy users whilst also delivering on the energy pillars of sustainability and security of supply.

A public consultation on the RESS closed last month and whilst all submissions are currently being considered in informing the final design of the RESS, no final decisions have been made at this point as regards the technologies that will be supported.

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