I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, to the House.
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
Tourism Promotion
I welcome the Minister of State. It is wonderful to have the opportunity to discuss the issues regarding North American tourism and the marketing opportunities we have at the moment. I spent last weekend in Kinsale, and it quickly became very obvious from talking to people involved in the hotel industry and the restaurant industry that the feedback they are getting from their American customers is unique. We are have been enjoying a really good interaction with the American customers over the last few years. One of the key issues is that they see huge value for money in coming to Ireland. The current exchange rate is something we have never seen before. I recall going to America years ago, and for €1 you would be getting maybe $1.50. Now the dollar is on par with the euro. The knock-on implication of that is that an American who would be paying $10 for a beverage in America could pay around $5 to $6 for the same beverage in Ireland. We should have a real marketing campaign on the value for money that we have in our tourism industry for the American market, in particular, so we can capitalise on it.
There is potential there. From speaking to the American tourists I met, and it was great to see them in Kinsale, I know they are coming to Kinsale because of the value that is there and because of the attractions and the sights we have that are managed by the OPW. There is also the Wild Atlantic Way. That entity, in particular, needs to be spoken about. We need to start talking about the real assets we have. We have real story to tell, and sometimes it is not all about Dublin. Sometimes it is about the rural areas and what happens in places like Kinsale, Clonakilty and Bantry and all the way up the west coast. The starting point of the Wild Atlantic Way is in Kinsale. In many ways it has changed the focus in trying to get tourists into rural areas. If we were to join those dots together and talk about what we have to offer - the unique scenery, the great value for money and the culture and heritage that the American market is so tied into - we could have a wonderful opportunity to make sure our entire hospitality industry, along the south and west coast in particular, could be revitalised.
That is what I am highlighting today. The campaign has to be about what we have in rural Ireland and what we have to offer. It has to be about what the Wild Atlantic Way can offer, but it also has to be about value for money. That is the issue that we have missed in our marketing campaign. It is great to think that American tourists from a different social background are coming to Kinsale on package holidays now because they can get value for money. Traditionally, it was the high-spending market that was coming. Now is everyone is coming. I have never seen such an opportunity for us to capitalise before. St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner. It is the start of our intensive marketing campaign in so many ways. With St. Patrick's Day coming up and with our envoys like the Minister of State and others going around the world, we need to start talking about what we have to offer here. That is the core point today. The message has changed. We need to focus now on our rural areas and on value for money. If we can do that, I am sure our vibrant tourism trade, which is worth anything from €6 billion to €8 billion, can be made more profitable.
I thank Senator Lombard and the Members of this House for giving me for an opportunity to address this matter today on behalf of the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. I believe anybody could stand up here, as Senator Lombard has done, and talk about what we have to offer in their own part of Ireland. I live in County Waterford, near the greenway and between the sea and the mountains. Regardless of whether you live in beautiful west Cork, Kerry, Galway or elsewhere, our country has so much to offer. As Senators are all aware, the tourism sector was decimated during the pandemic. Even though it rebounded well in 2022, significant challenges remain on the horizon, including labour shortfalls, accommodation supply issues, inflation, rising costs and a much weaker global economy.
The supports that the Government has put in place for the sector, during and since the pandemic, have ensured that the sector is still in a very strong position for attracting international visitors. In budget 2023, an additional €15 million was allocated for overseas marketing, which will enable Tourism Ireland to significantly ramp up its promotion of Ireland as a world-class tourism experience in key markets, including North America. The US is our most important market in terms of revenue, and is responsible for 29% of all tourist revenue.
In 2019, we welcomed 1.7 million US visitors, generating €1.5 billion in revenue but the Senator is right, we can do so much more. Throughout 2023, Tourism Ireland will roll out an extensive and targeted programme of activity in the United States and Canada. A wide range of promotional activities will be undertaken, including major marketing campaigns, publicity and programming, social media and digital marketing, as well as working with the tourism industry at home and the travel trade overseas to facilitate sales. Tourism lreland’s new global campaign, "Fill your heart with Ireland", will go live in the United States on 3 April. This new campaign will demonstrate how the island of Ireland fills the heart of celebrities, influencers and real-life holidaymakers, the likes of whom the Senator saw in Kinsale last weekend, to win market share among a more affluent holidaymaker audience. The key objective is revenue generation but hooks to grow tourism in the regions and during the shoulder season are built in. A number of supporting campaigns are also planned, as the Senator said, including the campaigns around St. Patrick’s Day, Hallowe'en, the Ryder Cup and The Open, luxury travel and screen tourism, as well as outdoor activities. Tourism Ireland will also capitalise on a number of special opportunities set to take place this year, including the Notre Dame versus Navy college football game in August and a collaboration with Riverdance in the United States.
A central theme in all of Tourism Ireland’s activity in North America will be sustainability, including an increased focus on achieving greater dispersal of visitors to the regions and extending the season through off-peak holidays. Greater dispersal of visitors to the regions is the key of what the Senator said because there is so much to offer. A lot of Irish people learned during Covid-19 that we have so much in our country. When you were limited to 5 km or to stay within your own county boundaries, we explored places we may not have visited since we were children. What we have to offer is fantastic. Tourism Ireland in conjunction with Searchlight Pictures created a short, behind-the-scenes video using footage shot during the filming of "The Banshees of Inisherin". It features director, writer and producer Martin McDonagh, as well as actors Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan, who describe and praise the special locations chosen for filming. That alone will have a huge impact for tourism from America.
I thank the Minister of State. She is making me yearn for travel after that reply.
I welcome the Minister of State's response. The focus of my contribution this morning was about trying to make sure the rural element of our rural towns was tied into the marketing campaign. When talking about towns like Kinsale and hotels like the Blue Haven, Actons and the Trident or the Fernhill Hotel, Clonakilty and the Celtic Ross Hotel, Rosscarbery, we have huge, wonderful complexes that can be part of this marketing campaign. Connections with local authorities are also important. I mentioned that the Kinsale-Bandon district is tied in with Rhode Island. They are also key links we need to work on in order that we can sell the message. I would like the Minister of State to clarify the following issue. This campaign should start on St. Patrick's Day, not 3 April. St. Patrick's Day is a traditional occasion during which we have great access worldwide to many events and influencers. We need to use that if we can. I hope St. Patrick's Day could be the real focus point so we can get things rolling. It is also about the cost of living. We have value for money we have never seen before. We have not sold that message. I picked up from Americans I have met that they have never seen such value for money. They are also on about the expense in America of food, which has become very expensive there. Now, Ireland is an affordable destination; we just need to tell that story and it has to be a part of the actual campaign.
We know that significant economic and social benefits are derived from facilitating access to and from the regions. Air connectivity to key regional hubs is essential to support incoming tourism, foreign direct investment and indigenous businesses. In that regard, the €3 million allocated to the regional co-operative marketing fund in 2023 will enable tourism Ireland to explore new access routes and maximise the potential of existing services to the regions and match funding from airlines, sea carriers, airports, ports and tourism stakeholders, including local authorities, as the Senator said. In fairness to the local authorities, they have been strong in putting forward what they have to offer in their areas.
According to my notes, this will start at the beginning of April but as the Senator said, we are going to see the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Minister in the Green Party, junior and senior Cabinet Ministers and others travelling all over the world. Where else would you want to be on St. Patrick's Day? Everybody wants to put on the green jersey and feel that unique Irishness we all know and love. We get a huge amount of support as Irish people all over the world and a huge amount of media coverage, after which we will roll straight into the campaign in April. I agree with the Senator wholeheartedly. We have so much to offer and we can keep pushing and pushing to encourage as many tourists to come back as possible. We really missed them during the Covid-19 period.
Pharmacy Services
I welcome the Minister of State to the House to discuss the role community pharmacies could have as key players in providing healthcare to our communities. We are all aware of the pressures experienced by many GPs across the country. GPs are oversubscribed, we do not have enough GPs and people cannot get added to a GP list. We are well aware of this issue in many parts of the country, including in my own county of Monaghan, where many young people who moved back from college or whatever are finding it difficult or impossible to get a GP. Unfortunately, the age cohort of our GPs is also increasing. In emergency departments, people often have to wait long times for treatment. In many cases, both GPs and patients could be seen safely and more suitably elsewhere, according to many pharmacists. I welcome plans to increase the number of places in medical colleges and more doctors in our hospitals and in our GP service overall, which are essential. However, we still need to examine how to reduce the pressure here and now. We must use all our resources to help in that regard. Expanding the role and having a conversation about how to expand the role of community pharmacies is key to that. International evidence shows that minor ailment schemes now being pushed forward by community pharmacists are effective in providing accessible and timely care at the lowest level of complexity, which is the key point. They allow for access to community pharmacy services for all patients and help free up capacity in primary and secondary care for more complex cases.
A recent survey by the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine in the UK estimated that one in every seven GP consultations and one out of every 12 accident and emergency attendees could have been dealt with by a visit to a pharmacist. There is no reason the story would be any different here. Freeing up capacity in primary and secondary care by directing people to a pharmacy first is an important step to delivering on the objectives of Sláintecare. A minor ailment scheme would demonstrate Government commitment to enhancing public health access, delivering quality patient care and improving health outcomes. Pharmacists, medical experts and community pharmacies are already a natural first point of call for minor injuries and advice. As the Minister of State knows, pharmacies are located in towns and villages across the country and many of them offer a seven-day service. They have the experience and commitment to build on our current services. More should be done to help alleviate the pressure on GPs. I look forward to the Minister of State's response.
I thank Senator Gallagher on behalf of the Minister for Health for raising this important issue. The Minister recognises the significant role community pharmacists play in the delivery of patient care. Community pharmacy is often the most accessible avenue to receiving such care and provides a vital link in our healthcare systems by ensuring the safe supply of medicines to people. We saw that come to the fore during the Covid-19 period when our community pharmacists were the first port of call for many people, as they are on a daily basis. Medicines are the most common healthcare intervention and the use and complexity of medicines are increasing. Pharmacists are the healthcare professionals optimally placed by virtue of their training to ensure the rational and safe use of medicines by patients.
The Minister also acknowledges the vital role that community pharmacy will play in the development and implementation of future healthcare reform, especially in regard to the aims and vision of Sláintecare. The focus of Sláintecare is to develop primary and community care and make it possible for people to stay healthy in their homes and communities for as long as possible. The underpinning objective and rationale for enhanced services to be delivered in community pharmacy practice will be to realise enhanced patient care and access. The Department is aware of developments, nationally and internationally, which evidence an evolving and enhanced scope of practice beyond the traditionally perceived pharmacy practice framework. I was struck by what the Senator said, that evidence has supported that one in seven visits to a GP and one in 12 to an emergency department might not be as necessary as is thought, if they had that support.
During the Covid-19 pandemic the HSE established a working group, now called the community pharmacy planning forum, which has examined the challenges confronting community pharmacists during the Covid-19 emergency and played a key role in resolving them to the benefit of the people of Ireland. The impact of its work can be seen in the important role that community pharmacists played in the national Covid-19 vaccination programme - the largest vaccination programme ever undertaken by the State. The forum provides an opportunity for stakeholders, including the Irish Pharmacy Union and the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, to provide insights on how community pharmacy can be expanded in the context of healthcare reform. The Department is open to exploring any evidence-based, appropriately governed services, delivered by appropriately trained professionals which will support this aim.
The Department recognises the need for the availability and retention of pharmacists in order that pharmacy may continue to meet patient needs and play a full role in the development of an integrated healthcare system. Many people really trust their pharmacist. Many pharmacists are the regular people who come in to a town, community or village, but are there for many years. Their family is part of the community. The first point of call, for many people, will be the community pharmacist.
Recently, the Minister for Health and Departmental officials met a delegation from the Irish Pharmacy Union and a very fruitful and positive discussion took place. Various proposals regarding extending the scope of practice offered by community pharmacists were discussed. Of course, any publicly funded pharmacy service expansion should address unmet public healthcare needs, improve access to existing public health services and provide better value for money.
I thank the Minister of State for her comprehensive response. I am very heartened by it. It would appear that the Department of Health's door is certainly open for discussion as to how best we can utilise our community of pharmacists, with a view to alleviating pressure on our GPs and accident and emergency departments. I am heartened by that. We can take a lead from best international practice, as to the different ailments that could be treated by the community pharmacist. I came across some information recently with regard to prescriptions. Young women aged 17 to 25 years of age had to go to their GP to get a prescription in order to get certain contraceptive pills. The WHO has suggested it can see no reason why they could not go directly to their pharmacist for that service. That is the way it is in the UK, the US, New Zealand, Canada and many other countries. It is the kind of thinking I wish to see incorporated here in order that we could alleviate the pressure on some young woman having to go to a GP, make an appointment, see the GP, get the prescription and then come back to the pharmacist. We are looking for imaginative and creative thinking as to how we can alleviate that pressure. This is just one example.
The Minister is absolutely committed to the ethos of ensuring that the right care is delivered in the right place at the right time for all citizens. He recognises that all healthcare professionals have a role to play in optimising patient care and service delivery in line with this vision. An example of the importance of the role of community pharmacists can be found in their participation in the free contraception scheme for women aged 17 to 25, which launched in September 2022. The scheme was extended to 26-year-old women from January 2023 and it will be further extended to women aged 27 to 30 in September 2023 of this year. I know everybody welcomes this. The participation of community pharmacists is vital to the ongoing success of the scheme. The Senator is talking about taking it another step further. I am sure everything is on the table.
The focus of current scoping work within the Department is to increase capacity in the healthcare system overall, to deliver better healthcare outcomes and ensure that unintended negative consequences in other parts of the healthcare system do not arise. The Minister believes there is a real opportunity to work collaboratively and with other healthcare providers to make a significant difference to patient outcomes. Obviously, this includes our community pharmacists the length and breadth of the country who do Trojan work on a daily basis. I, as the Senator can hear, have made many calls to the community pharmacist in the past few weeks. Community pharmacists give such care and support. The rule brought in a few years ago, whereby all community pharmacists have a private room where one can go to speak in private if one does not wish to be at the counter, was one of the best moves ever made. Community pharmacists offer such a unique role and support to healthcare services in Ireland.
It is such an important topic and the Minister of State's reply was outstanding. I think of the great work my local pharmacist, Ciaran Curran, and his team in Ennistymon do, with such professionalism. There is such scope for extending the work they do. I commend Senator Gallagher on a excellent Commencement matter.
Primary Care Centres
The Minister of State is very welcome. It is very pleasant to see a Minister of State from the Department of Health responding to a health matter. I am very grateful for that. We have been here since June 2020. In December 2019, the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, and the then Fine Gael Deputy for Dublin South Central and former Minister of State, Catherine Byrne, announced the commitment to the Drimnagh primary care centre at the Mother McAuley site in Drimnagh and gave great promises of what would be involved in that. They gave a timeline of appointment of a design team the following year and that by 2021, we would have a shovel in the ground and would see the construction of the site. I appreciate that Covid came in the way of that. I am very mindful of it.
However, I wrote to the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, in July 2020 just to ask whether this project was progressing. The design team is something. One can go out to tender with that. There are no physical meetings on it. I received a reply in September, within which the very chilling phrase, "it is a dynamic process", was used, which tells me this will stretch on forever. The community of Drimnagh have been waiting for this primary care centre for an awfully long time. It was an overdue announcement when it was made in 2019, let alone that we are now in 2023. I had Commencement matter debates on it on 8 February 2021 and on 29 June 2021, when I was told the design team tender process was under way. Since then, I have heard from councillors who were told in their contact with the HSE that a design team was appointed. I am looking for an update, that being the case, at the very least, last year. Will we see significant construction progress this year?
There are a few things going on. First, the plans for that are to rebuild an Alzheimer's unit at the Mother McAuley centre site and to have a community creche and a state-of-the-art primary care centre. Residents in Drimnagh are relying on services that are depleting all of the time. One example of that is the children's disability network team, CDNT, service within the Armagh Road. It is at all-time low levels of staffing, which is quite frightening. I do not know. I recognise the challenge of recruitment but maybe part of recruitment is offering people a fantastic facility in which to work and has state-of-the-art facilities that go with these primary care centres. I have seen great successes in others, such as in Rialto. We have others throughout the constituency but this one, in particular, is long overdue.
It is a symbol to the people of Drimnagh and especially the group, Dynamic Drimnagh, that brings together all of the organisations and communities and is mobilising for the village of Drimnagh, which is long overdue and needs to part of the construction planning there. The community looks at increased numbers of apartments being built, their population going up and still no guarantee they will have the healthcare services and primary care centre.
This is symbolic of the way forward for the community of Drimnagh. If it has the primary care centre, that will be a symbol and a tangible experience of the commitment of Government to the people there. Then we will be building a community and village around that in a tangible way in the fantastic plans it has. I am keen to hear from the Minister of State where are we as of today.
I would like to thank the Senator, on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, for providing the opportunity to update the House on Drimnagh primary care centre. A central objective of the programme for Government is to deliver increased levels of integrated health care, with service delivery reoriented towards general practice, primary care and community-based services to enable a home first approach.
Primary care centres play an essential role in the delivery of that objective and significant progress has been made in the delivery of these centres nationally. These centres support the delivery of integrated care by facilitating closer co-ordination and co-operation between health professionals across different disciplines. They also provide a single point of access to services for the individual and can serve more broadly as a resource for the community. There are currently 165 primary care centres operational, with 14 more under construction and 12 of these are scheduled to be delivered during 2023. We have seen huge investment in primary care centres throughout the country over the past ten years. They are a new departure and they have been welcomed by the various communities.
The Drimnagh primary care centre will be located on the existing site at Curlew Road. It will provide vital services in community healthcare organisation, CHO, 7 and specifically in the south Dublin suburb of Drimnagh. Funding was allocated in capital programme 2022 to commence the design process for Drimnagh primary care centre. A design team has been appointed and the preliminary design process is under way. The local service is reviewing accommodation requirements to ensure the building will accommodate the services and primary care teams required to deliver the healthcare needs to the Drimnagh area. Capital approval has been granted to complete a strategic assessment report, SAR, for Drimnagh primary care centre, and a consultant is currently being appointed to complete the SAR.
The primary care centre in Drimnagh is envisioned to facilitate a primary care team, including: addiction and older persons services; older persons day care services alongside public health and community nursing; physiotherapy; occupational therapy; speech and language therapy; dietetics; and counselling. It will also consist of three general practitioner suites, which are important because we have seen GPs move into primary care centres and it is nearly a one-stop shop for people when they have to have other issues identified.
It will also include a day care centre for persons with Alzheimer's illness, which is close to my heart. To date, we have 40 Alzheimer's-specific day care centres open and we have a great working relationship with the Alzheimer Society of Ireland. During Covid we discovered from infection prevention and control that some of the premises we were providing services on for dementia-specific day care, that they probably were not fit for purpose for infection prevention and control measures. We spent a lot of time and money during Covid to make sure these services were fit for purpose. We need them everywhere and it would be fantastic to see a specific day care centre for people with Alzheimer's disease. Some 11 people are diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease every day of the week and we have 64,000 people in the country with a dementia diagnosis. However, we probably have as many people with dementia who do not have that diagnosis.
The primary care centre will also have a community centre, including a crèche, which will be great too. These services will be integrated with the proposed on-site GP service and provide an integrated service to the public all under one roof. As the Senator knows, all capital development proposals must progress through a number of approval stages, in line with the public spending code, including detailed appraisal, planning, design and procurement, before funding for each stage can be confirmed. Having listened to and had so many meetings with the Minister, he is frustrated with the slow pace of this, including the appraisal of the planning, the design and the procurement. He is hoping to expedite that across all capital spends for health services.
I thank the Minister of State. She paints a fabulous picture of what the Drimnagh primary care centre will look like and it will have incredibly valuable services. My problem is that there are no dates in respect of it and the day when a resident of Drimnagh walks through the doors of that primary care centre could be ten years away for all I know. She mentioned preliminary reports and strategic assessment reports but how long do they take? What is their purpose? I say that as someone who does not understand what they are. Presumably, they are necessary but is it a report that will be followed by another report, following which we still will not have a primary care centre when it is desperately needed by the people here? That is my concern. We need to start seeing timelines and we need accountability for those timelines. I appreciate that is not necessarily always within the Minister's gift but it is in his gift to drive it and to demand accountability from design teams and the process.
I reiterate that we have seen a huge expansion of primary care services and centres over the past ten years. We have 165, with 14 under construction, 12 of which are scheduled to be delivered in 2023. Unfortunately, however, the one in Drimnagh is not included in that. There is one close to my heart in Waterford that I am trying to push as well but the precedent is there. Every year, like the HSE-run community nursing units, which we announced seven of in December, the roll-out will continue because there is a strategic plan in place to deliver these.
I know it is frustrating when there are no clear guidelines but, at the same time, the Drimnagh primary care centre is on the capital plan and funding was provided in 2022. We have not seen the capital plan for 2023 yet but the most important thing I always find is that a project is in the capital plan. This project is in appendix 2 and it will move up to appendix 1. We are frustrated in the Department at the time it takes for any capital investment building and a lot of time is lost in the preliminary years. I know a lot of scoping has to be done at design and planning stages but I do not see why both stages cannot run in parallel with each other. I am frustrated by that in the areas of mental health and older people and it is something the Minister has put a focus on.
I want to acknowledge the phenomenal work that Senator Seery Kearney does for the people of Drimnagh in this House, week in and week out.
Energy Infrastructure
I welcome the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, to the House.
I thank the Minister for his time. I know that in his role, he travels all over the country and he is up the walls so I appreciate his time. My Commencement matter is fairly straightforward. I ask him to inform the House of what plans are in place to enable farmers to have small-scale anaerobic digester plants to enable them to create their own energy. We see efforts to build giant anaerobic digester plants that are causing lots of controversy in communities where there will be no massive community benefit. For example, in Gort, not far from where I live, there are huge concerns over the biogas plant. If we could expedite the ability of farmers to construct smaller scale anaerobic digesters with a few other farmers, it would mean there would be fewer objections, the money would stay in communities, and the farmers would have lower bills.
Ireland has 13 large biogas plants and the climate action plan sets a target of delivering 5.7 terawatt hours, TWh, of anaerobic digester-based energy. No schemes operate that offer enough support to make small-scale anaerobic digesters or small-scale plants economically viable in Ireland. There are 76 anaerobic digester plants in operation in Northern Ireland. The majority of these plants produce biogas and are farm-based, with on-site combined heat and power, CHP, generators. There is a pilot project being carried out by Teagasc in Grange. This is under construction and it will research environmental sustainability, the economics of biogas and its use in the gas bid or for other uses. Three farm-scale biogas demonstration projects are in development, funded through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, which I am sure the Minister is aware of. There is no timeline on those projects. Have they begun and is there any sign of results of any kind?
If we look to countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and France, there is a big precedent for small-scale biodigesters.
I visited one in Kilkenny 25 years ago. I saw farmers coming in with slurry tanks and wondered what they were doing. They were heating the local hall. Seven farmers in Kilkenny were doing this 25 years ago so there is a precedent. They heated the local hall and the hall paid the farmers. It was a brilliant initiative.
Funding is needed to subsidise farmers to create their own. Gas would have to be used locally for heat, maybe for a local hall or local district heating system. It is not effective to turn the gas into electricity, as they have discovered in other countries.
I read in the Irish Farmers' Journal during the week of yet another big company wanting to build another big anaerobic digestion factory. Big companies do not build small; they build big only. In many rural areas where things like windfarms are built, all it does is divide communities because some people benefit and others do not. We know it is not the best fit for communities in rural Ireland. We need to bring communities together, not cause separation. A small-scale anaerobic digestion facility subsidised by the State would benefit the whole community, and not just involve giving a few quid to the local GAA and soccer clubs to try to keep people quiet while they build monstrosities.
Our own domestic supply of gas from farmers has never been more needed than now. The Ukraine war has led to Irish people paying extortionate prices for imported fossil fuel-based gas. We need to see energy created by and for communities with real community benefit. Will the Minister commit to setting up clear guidance and subsidies to help farmers to create small-scale anaerobic digesters? We need to expedite this, instead of waiting for the Government to build new ones to try it all out. There is precedent in Ireland and abroad.
I thank the Senator for raising this Commencement matter. It is a topic both us of are excited about. We are at the precipice of seeking huge transformation and it will be driven largely by the farm families of Ireland.
Anaerobic digestion and the indigenous production of biomethane is a clear commitment within the climate action plan 2023. This plan sets a target of up to 5.7 TWh of biomethane, which will be a threefold increase on the ambition within the previous climate action plan. I emphasise that the delivery of the 5.7 TWh of indigenously produced biomethane remains an energy-led policy, while acknowledging the agriculture sector and farmers have a leadership role to play. The overall development of the sector, given its early but growing stage, will be primarily driven by appropriate energy policies and supports, which remain responsibility of the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications. The level of ambition is set in the climate action plan, which firmly recognises the important contribution of biomethane production to delivering renewable energy targets, decarbonising industry with a high thermal heat load and providing alternative land-use options for farmers.
Alongside opportunities for farm income and land-use diversification options for farmers, the anaerobic industry represents a pathway for farmers to reduce fertiliser usage through the increased availability of digestate which will also have positive climate change implications. Reaching the ambition of 5.7 TWh of biomethane is firmly rooted in the achievement of the sectoral emissions ceiling for agriculture.
My Department has a key regulatory role to play when using animal by-products as feedstock for anaerobic digestion. Animal by-products have an important role to play in development of our biomethane capacity and their use will help Ireland to develop an indigenous biomethane industry.
To build out an anaerobic digestion industry of scale to deliver on the climate action plan requires a multiplicity of stakeholders across government, farmers, businesses and regulators to come together to align policy, incentives, regulations and markets. This is why, together with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, we have committed to the development of a national biomethane strategy by quarter 3 of this year, to make it a priority to provide a strategic direction for the industry. This strategy will identify the necessary actions to deliver the 5.7 TWh. The strategy will be agri-led, farmer-centric and will contribute positively to the sectoral emissions ceiling for agriculture, as well as to the decarbonisation of the energy system. The strategy will focus on issues such as security and sustainability of feedstocks; demand-side considerations and end users; regulatory requirements and policy alignment; and financial supports, be they capital or operational in nature. It will also be cognisant of the wider community, with topics such as scale of plant and location of plants being addressed. That is something the Senator raised in her contribution. This strategy is being developed through a project steering group on anaerobic digestion and biomethane under the auspices of the task force on heat and the built environment, which is chaired by the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan.
In parallel and in recognition of the requirement for an operational support mechanism, a renewable heat obligation scheme will be introduced in 2024. This obligation will incentivise supplies of all fuels in the heat sector to ensure a certain proportion of the energy supplied is renewable. The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is carrying out a scoping exercise to develop options for the structure of the renewable heat obligation. We are going to see a decade of change for Irish agriculture but equally a decade of opportunity. Anaerobic digestion can be a viable opportunity that can work for farmers, the environment and our emissions reductions targets.
I thank the Minister for that information. He said the strategy for the 5.7 TWh “will be agri-led, farmer-centric and will contribute positively to the sectoral emissions ceiling". It is great that it will be agri-led. We want it to be led by farmers and, in general, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. It is part of the energy thing but has to be led by that Department.
I did not get any information on where the pilot project in Grange by Teagasc is, nor did I get information or an update on the three farm-scale biogas demonstration projects funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine under the European innovation partnership scheme.
If the Minister wants to do the renewable heat obligation scheme in 2024, we need workshops for farmers and information evenings. Farmers are asking me questions. They want to know when they will be asked to do this. How do they learn about it, having heard about it vaguely? We need to upskill and educate farmers, and maybe bring them to sites where this already exists. Farmers want to do this. Why would they not want to produce their own clean gas, as opposed to burning fossil fuel gas from Russia or Ukraine? To have a scheme in 2024, we need to start now with getting Teagasc, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine or the Irish Farmers Association to run workshops for farmers to help them to set up these small-scale anaerobic digesters.
I will come back to the Senator with specific written updates on the two points she has raised. Overall, we want to step this out promptly and get our national strategy together by quarter 3 of this year. That is kicking off and the consultants are being appointed who will put it together. The industry is looking for national direction and policy clarity on stepping it forward. It is about producing energy. Biomethane is energy so the Department of energy will have a significant role. We want to ensure that when plants are established, farmers are at the centre of how they are run and communities benefit from them. The strategy will address and take account of all of that, set the pathway for it and look at the policy and financial supports necessary to make sure that it works and that, if plants operate, they are viable into the future. It will also address the type of financial infrastructure that will provide the certainty to bring about that investment.
The climate action plan we introduced last year has the ambition that by the end of this decade 10% of natural gas used in homes across the country and 10% of our national gas requirement will come from inside the farm gate, generated in anaerobic digestion plants. There is exciting potential. It is a big logistical and planning task and will require a significant financial contribution but it is all doable. We want to make it happen as quickly as possible. I thank the Senator for raising this matter and I look forward to continuing to work with her and to bringing this forward.
I thank the Minister for making time to come into the House to respond to this important issue. I congratulate him on the work he does.
Cuireadh an Seanad ar fionraí ar 10.20 a.m. agus cuireadh tús leis arís ar 10.32 a.m.
Sitting suspended at 10.20 a.m. and resumed at 10.32 a.m.