Up to 6,000 ha for biofuel

CROPS from 5,000 to 6,000 hectares (12,500 to 15,000 acres) of Irish crops will be processed for the 16m litres of biofuels on which the Government has announced €6m in excise relief.

The move is a boost for the fledgling biofuels industry, said IFA president John Dillon. But, he said, it represents only a substitution rate of 0.1% of fossil fuel, and the EU transport biofuels directive obliges Ireland to substitute 2%.

Biofuels are renewable transport fuels which have significantly less damaging carbon dioxide emissions than their fossil fuel equivalents.