Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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1848. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the progress on the all-island bioeconomy demonstrator projects, including locations, themes, capital works, co-funding with DAERA and industry engagement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47403/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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The awards from the Shared Island Bioeconomy Demonstration Initiative, supporting two bioeconomy projects with €4.5m funding each, were announced on 3rd September 2025. These feature collaboration across the island of Ireland, and will support innovation for the Agri-Bioeconomy in Northern Ireland and for the Blue Bioeconomy in Ireland. A North/South collaborative approach will be undertaken in both funded projects.

The “Recycling phosphates and nitrogen from agricultural residues” (REGENERATE) project is coordinated by Greenville Energy Ltd (SME NI) with partner organisations Enviro Grind Ltd. (SME IE), Munster Technological University (IE), University College Cork (IE), Foster Environmental (SME IE), and Nua Fund (SME IE).  The total funding amount is €4,498,439.  The project has a start date of 01 Sept 2025 and an end date of 31 Aug 2030.  The project aims to develop an agricultural waste-to-biobased fertiliser value chain.  Digestate will be processed in a state-of-the-art anaerobic digestion biorefinery plant (at Greenville Energy) and on a composting site (at Enviro Grind).  The materials used as feedstock for the AD plant at Greenville will be locally sourced agri-residues, livestock manures, and milk processing waste. Processing will extract essential nutrients from the digestate and remove contaminants. End products from this circular and biobased process will include critical inputs for soil health and value-added peat replacement products. The project will invest €1,322,910 in capital equipment.

The All Island Marine Bio-based Refineries for Circular Blue-Bioeconomy (AIMBIO) project is coordinated by Teagasc Ashtown with partner Organisations AFBI (NI), Atlantic Technological University (IE), Technological University of the Shannon (IE), Indigo Rock Marine Research Centre Ltd. (IE), Trinity College Dublin (IE) Islander Kelp Ltd. (NI), and BeoBio/Seamegrow (IE).  The funding amount is €4,476,408, with a start date of 01 Sept 2025 and end date of 31 Aug 2030. The project aims to convert aquatic biomass into biobased materials, chemicals, ingredients, and products. The feedstock for this project will be under-utilised side-streams from aquaculture, fisheries, and aquatic processors.  The project will invest €1,375,210 in capital equipment.  Across three regional demonstration sites (Bantry, Burtonport, and Rathlin) and at a pilot biorefinery in Teagasc Ashtown, the project will develop, demonstrate, optimise, and validate biorefinery technologies to process these aquatic side-streams.  The resulting end products will include high-value ingredients for agri-food applications, including food, feed, chemicals, cosmetics, and nutrition.

The €9 million fund is enabled by the allocation of €7 million from the Government of Ireland’s Shared Island Fund, and €1.5 million co-funding from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and £0.5 million the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland.