Danny Healy-Rae on Farm Biogas Feasibility and Community Concerns

Thank you very much, Coyle, and Dad, to welcome you all here today. It is very interesting, and I suppose a lot of us are behind the call when we're here at, and, you know, there's been so much talk about anaerobic digesters and the value of them and whatever. So I suppose there are a few questions there, and maybe Brendan in answer, what is the minimum amount of calls a fellow could have in a farm that would be feasible to go at or do that? Probably 100 calls. And would it cost a fellow much in terms of getting going? I can't answer that because I'm not a developer, but I presume it would be probably 100,000 less than what I... It would be just down to tank sizes. The infrastructure and the CHP would probably be similar. So there's... I can take that, Deputy, because we administered the project and the programme for Brendan. Really, it's not really... We shouldn't really assess it based on the number of cows. It was really down to what farm infrastructure is in place. Brendan has scraper systems, which allows the collection of fresh slurry. It's what type of a farm it is in terms of what volumes of slurry have you got. It suits Brendan's system because he does have his cows housed at night, so they're out during the day in grass. It also depends on what energy use you have. So Brendan has a large requirement... Sorry, Stephen. A large requirement for electricity and heat. So you look at... There's a number of different factors to look at before you can actually understand whether it's viable or not. We had over 260 farmers applied for the capital grant programme. We brought three projects through to planning for mission stage. Unfortunately, we ran out of time not to get the others developed, and planning was an issue on one of them. But we developed the one on Brendan's farm, and it's a very good showcase. But there's a lot of findings from that project, and I can send on a report and a slide pack for the committee through the clerk afterwards if the committee wants further information about the particular project. Brendan, in relation to the... You say here that over half the electricity air export, half of that electricity onto the grid without payment, so you're getting nothing for that? We're hoping to get paid for it in time. We're waiting for our smart meter. And we're still working with the ESB to try and get our smart meter. And for the knowledge of everyone, the ESB are around trying to impose smart meters on people that don't want them. So, and that is a fact. So, the other question I have for whoever will answer it, we'll say there's no problem with, as far as planning is concerned, for some fellow developing one of these things on the farm, and in the farm and just part of the farm, you know, viability or whatever to stay going and to go forward. But there is concern about larger ones that are being built independently, maybe more on a commercial basis, and I suppose that's what you're at in different places. And I suppose, like the wind turbines, it's where you put them and is the big issue because we see a big racket here in the AV room, was it a week ago, Kilkenny, people concerned about wind turbines adjacent to their homes. So, like... I was so furious. What? Let's go on anyway. We'll stick with one speaker. What? One speaker, drive on. Right, I'm doing my dish. But had he any trouble trying to get planning or was there objections, local objections? I think, I mean, Ballonrobe is the one project that we've broken ground on and we were delighted with the response from the local community there. We had one or two observations, but there was no... I think the Western people said it best last week, not one complaint. Now, that's not to say that every project and location will be the same. I mean, there will always be people who have some concern. What we have noticed, generally, is that there is a groundswell of support amongst the community for this project, amongst the rural community, amongst farmers. There are always one or two people who will have concerns. And that's where we do, as Mike mentioned, that's where we try to engage with them on a one-on-one basis to hear their concerns and to give them as much comfort as we possibly can. So it's basically down to where you put them. And it's how you work with the local community. How you present it. Yes. I suppose the other question I have, because I'm concerned about that, Senator Daly mentioned about grass. Grass. Why would anyone want to put green grass into one of these things? I mean, that's what we're about every day. I don't know in the small place that I have. We give a lot of these setting grasses, trying to get the grass to grow. Why would we be trying to get rid of it into a kind of a... Grass is just a crop, OK? Grass is a crop. So grass is just another crop. So it's all about how to get the sugars. So it's back to the question earlier about the diet, about the recipe, getting the digestion right. So what you want to do is get the best digestion in. And grass can help. So you can put grass in. You can take some for the cows and some for the AD. It does work. Or you can put the waste. Because we don't know where we have an unbelievable growth of russes. No, I'm sorry. Would there be any good to this? No. I'm afraid not. Unfortunately, Daly. They're only good for your russes. Look, we look forward to hearing more from me because she's very interesting. And Brendan's story is very... It's just about the feasibility for smaller farmers. I suppose that's the concern that I have. Thank you briefly, Mr Phelan. Yeah, it's a really good question about feedstock. And again, I'll circulate our assessment we did through a European project in the Energy Agency about the available feedstocks. And there are benefits in some scenarios, you'll probably appreciate yourself, where some of your grass might go that direction because it suits at the particular time of the year or whatever way your stocking is set up or other which way. But quite interestingly, there are some very clear and defined sustainability guidelines around the feedstock. So, and I'm not sure the technical reason, and maybe your colleague Graham might understand it from the experiences. So, it would make sense to put energy crops into the energy output. But there are limitations set in terms of the percentage of energy crop that you could put into an energy project. It would be totally against our religion to doom grass into one of these things. So, I'd say that's the same for we look. Thank you all very much. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon. Thank you, Deputy Toon.