Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The EPA is in a difficult position. For some of the policy measures we are planning, as I said, it needed to see back-up, financial commitment or other Government measures so that they would be seen as deliverable. Anaerobic digestion is one example of an area that was not easy to model or expect to deliver, but we will deliver it. It is one of the ways people can actually diversify incomes in agriculture. The amount of imported fossil fuel gas and emissions that come from it can be reduced. While we are in a very tight timeframe there, I had a meeting last week with the sector people who are interested in investing in this. Previously, the EPA could not model or project what we could deliver in bio-methane because we did not have the strategy out. We now have that strategy. I am very confident a scale of investment will be seen in this area. This is one example of a project which previously was not easy to model or estimate. We can now show real progress because we have a strategy and there will be funding arrangements from the climate, nature and infrastructure fund, which gives funding certainty for the next five years. That is what is needed. It is being delivered as one example of a project that was not previously modelled but can be delivered on.

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