Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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313. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if funding under the €40 million capital grant scheme for biomethane will be expanded to support small- and medium-scale community-led projects. [60665/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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My Department, through the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform secured EU funding to kickstarting the biomethane sector in Ireland. This funding, through REPowerEU, has specific and strict terms and conditions that must be complied with to receive the funding. The national submission to REPowerEU outlines that the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine is to receive funding for a capital grant scheme for biomethane production plants.

Following the launch of the National Biomethane Strategy in May 2024, my Department launched a Biomethane Capital Grant scheme, with a 20% grant available up to a maximum of €5 million per applicant. The scheme was open to any project that had already received planning permission. The application period for this scheme closed on August 30th 2024. This REPowerEU funding operates to a tight time-frame, and applicants in the scheme must complete construction by 31 December 2025. The facility to reallocate funding or extend the support is not available under this scheme.