Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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90. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment for an update on proposals for a scheme of legal aid for environmental litigation. [1153/25]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Part 9 of the Planning and Development Act 2024 provides, inter alia, for the setting up of a legal cost financial assistance mechanism by way of Regulations, to address the legal costs in planning and environment related judicial reviews.

An interdepartmental working group (IDG) has been set up to discuss how to bring this provision forward.

The IDG is made up of representatives of

Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications,

• Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage,
• Department of Justice,
• Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Deliver and Reform,
• Attorney General’s Office,
• Department of the Taoiseach,
• The Courts Service of Ireland,
• National Treasury Management Agency, and
• A private consultant.

It is expected that the group will be in a position to report back to Government on its deliberations shortly.

While future steps in the development of a scheme will be a matter for the incoming Government, it has been my intention to seek the advice of the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee in relation to the complex issues raised in developing the scheme.

Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)
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91. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the environmental concerns that will be covered in the biomethane sustainability charter being developed by his Department and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine under the national biomethane strategy. [1154/25]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Government is committed to supporting the delivery up to 5.7 TWh of indigenously produced biomethane by 2030 to further accelerate the reduction of overall economy-wide emissions. To deliver on this commitment, the recently established Biomethane Implementation Group, chaired by my Department, will oversee target delivery through the implementation of the National Biomethane Strategy.

A fundamental objective of the Biomethane Implementation Group, which reports into the Heat and Built Environment Delivery Taskforce, is to ensure the development of an agri-led biomethane industry of scale and to protect against any unintended or negative environmental consequences of production.

The Charter, which is being developed in consultation with policy makers, State Agencies, industry representatives, and key societal stakeholders will reflect the fact that greenhouse gas emissions reduction and sustainable energy production and land uses are the goals of public support for biomethane production. Life-cycle sustainability based on rigorous analysis and data will form the basis for decisions on permitting and supports of biomethane. This will include climate, biodiversity and water quality considerations and ensuring a high health and safety standard within the sector.

Issues to be addressed include:

*prioritisation as feedstock of waste materials made available in a cascading use framework,

*appropriate requirements which will ensure that material specifically grown as feedstock will come from ghg-negative production systems, such as specifications for no drainage, fertiliser use nor tillage,

*similar requirements as regards biodiversity and water quality,

*ensuring that biomethane feedstock production displaces the grazing of land with low biodiversity value and not tillage uses nor grazing of land with high biodiversity value,

*requirements as regards gathering and transparency of data on critical aspects of biomethane sustainability such as leakage and such as compliance with feedstock production criteria, including independent field measurements and inspections.