Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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391. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if consultations have been held with the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment on the introduction of grant support for anaerobic digesters; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10320/19]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Indigenous renewable energy plays a vital role in our domestic fuel mix and will become even more important in the context of reducing our reliance on imported fuels and in meeting our challenging renewable energy targets for 2020 and 2030.

My Department is committed to working closely with the Department for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, which is the lead Department in this area, to ensure that the supply of domestic fuels available in the forest and agriculture sectors are mobilised to support energy generation from a range of bioenergy technologies including Anaerobic Digestion.

The Anaerobic Digestion (AD) industry in Ireland is at a nascent stage of development compared to more established industry in many European countries. Potential for the growth of the AD sector in Ireland is strong but it should be seen as a long term development. There are currently ten anaerobic digesters producing biogas in operation nationally that are approved and are under licence by my department.

My Department continues to support research, development and demonstration in this particular area. As recently as October 2018, two projects were approved for funding from the European Innovation Partnerships Initiative (EIP), under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020. The Biorefinery Glas (small scale farmer-led green biorefineries) and Irish Bioenergy Association (IrBEA) (small biogas demonstration programme) have both been awarded funding of over €900,000 each.