Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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766. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the status of the biofuel obligation scheme; the steps he will take to ensure compliance in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30493/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The Biofuels Obligation Scheme was introduced in 2010 and requires suppliers of motor fuel to ensure that biofuels make up a certain percentage of annual fuel sales. It is a certificate based scheme with two certificates awarded per litre of sustainable biofuel if that biofuel is produced from wastes or residues and one certificate per litre for all other sustainable biofuels. The Biofuels Obligation Scheme is administered by the National Oil Reserves Agency, which is a body established under the 2007 National Oil Reserves Agency Act.

For each calendar year, a fuel supplier must hold sufficient biofuel obligation certificates to demonstrate compliance. The number of certificates required is determined by the biofuel obligation rate, which is currently set at 8%. This means that at the end of 2018, a fuel supplier must hold 8 biofuel certificates for every 92 litres of fossil fuel they place on the road transport fuel market this year. If a fuel supplier does not have sufficient certificates, it can purchase certificates from other obligated parties who hold surpluses and/or pay a ‘buy out charge’ of 45 cent per certificate for the shortfall. The level of compliance with the obligation is high and there has been very limited necessity for the buy-out charge to be levied since the scheme was introduced.

In 2017 the Biofuels Obligation Scheme resulted in over 225 million litres of biofuel being placed on the market in Ireland leading to over 7% renewable energy use in the transport sector compared to the 10% target for 2020 under the Renewable Energy Directive.

In December 2017, my Department held a consultation seeking views in relation to implementing a phased increase to the biofuel obligation rate and on how the scheme could be developed in the future. A key theme to emerge from responses to the consultation was the need to provide certainty to industry and stakeholders to facilitate longer term planning for future blending obligations.

In April 2018, I published a Biofuel Obligation Scheme Policy Statement which set out six key actions that will be undertaken in the development of the scheme. This included an increase in the biofuel obligation rate to 10% by volume from 1 January 2019 and 11% by volume from 1 January 2020. The first of these changes has been enacted by S.I. No. 169 of 2018.

Further changes to the Biofuels Obligation Scheme are likely for the period post-2020 to conform to the recently agreed changes to the Renewable Energy Directive. In this regard, it is my intention that a further public consultation be held next year.