Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 April 2026
112. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the progress made to date in relation to the national biomethane strategy, in particular the Programme for Government commitment to offer key financial supports and incentives for the strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27659/26]
View answerDelivery of the Government's ambition for indigenous biomethane by 2030 and its use within our energy system will have multiple cross-sectoral benefits for Ireland’s economy, energy security and emissions profile. As such, development of the industry will require a coherent and collaborative approach to policy implementation across all sectors including energy, agriculture and enterprise.
The Biomethane Implementation Group has been established to oversee implementation of the National Biomethane Strategy and delivery of the 25 key strategic actions to ensure the necessary infrastructure and supports are in place to support development of an indigenous biomethane industry of scale.
Chaired by my Department, with close support from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the group reports directly to the Heat and Built Environment Taskforce on on-going progress and is comprised of a number of focused sub-groups namely - economic, sustainability, infrastructure and industry issues. Membership of the group includes key Government Departments and Agencies.
The group continues to engage with action owners and key stakeholders to monitor implementation and a full progress report on delivery of actions within the National Biomethane Strategy is now published on the biomethane policy information page on Gov.ie website.
Anaerobic digestion (AD) plants are capital intensive projects. Along with operational costs (including feedstock and financing costs) this drives the per unit revenue required by the plant, and in turn the ‘green premium’ over fossil gas.
A combination of capital grants and the introduction of the Renewable Heat Obligation has been agreed by Government to put Ireland on a trajectory to meeting the 2030 ambition.
Funding for the second round of capital grants has been secured through the NDP/ICNF (Infrastructure, Nature and Climate Fund) process and will be available to support AD plants later in 2026.
My Department is in the initial stage of developing the Biomethane Capital Grant Support Scheme.
