Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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500. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the amount of used cooking oil, UCO, used in the production of biodiesel here in each of the years since 2010; the volume of the UCO that was collected here in each of the years; and the volumes of UCO that were imported (details supplied). [49550/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Used cooking oil (or UCO) is the most widely used feedstock for biofuel used in Ireland.  In 2017, over 141 million litres of biodiesel produced from UCO was placed on the market here, of which 4.7 million litres was from feedstock sourced in Ireland.

There is one biofuel manufacturer of scale in Ireland which has the facility to produce up to 34 million litres of biodiesel annually. The principal feedstocks used for the manufacture of biodiesel at the company's plant are tallow, which is a waste from the meat processing industry, and UCO.

The Biofuels Obligation Scheme Annual Reports which are available on the website of the National Oil Reserves Agency at www.nora.ie/biofuels-obligation-scheme/bos-annual-reports.225.htmllists the breakdown of biofuel feedstocks used by country of origin since July 2012, when biofuel sustainability regulations came into force. Data is not available prior to July 2012.

Taken from these annual reports, the following table lists the amount of biodiesel from UCO placed on the Irish transport fuel market in the past six years broken down by feedstock sourced in Ireland and outside Ireland.

The table provides estimates of the collection figures for waste code 20 01 25 (which closely corresponds to UCO).It should be noted that this excludes household waste and a portion of the figures will refer to grease trap waste. These figures have been provided by the National Waste Collection Permit Office.

The table lists the available information by tonnage of imported UCO. A breakdown of countries and similar data in relation to exports is not currently available. The figures shown below have been provided by the National Transfrontier Shipment Office.