Department of Environment chief 'not aware of the specifics' of why Ireland did not apply to EU energy fund

Environment Minister Eamon Ryan: His department failed to apply for a European fund for the rollout of biomethane production.

The head of the Department of the Environment has said he is “not aware of the specifics” regarding a €2bn European fund for the rollout of biomethane production which Ireland has failed to apply for.

Speaking at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), secretary-general of the Department of the Environment Mark Griffin said “I don’t know the reason for that” with regard to the missed application.

In my long experience in the civil service, I’ve never known Ireland not to put their hand out for EU money — we’ve been extraordinarily successful at it,” 

he said.

Under questioning from Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy, Mr Griffin said “there was a proposal there, I know that for a fact”. 

“I need to find out what happened,” he said.

“I was aware of two large projects that were being mooted for the funding from REPowerEU,” Mr Griffin said, in reference to the €210bn funding programme instituted by the European Commission last March with a view to ensuring continuity of energy supply in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ireland is one of just two European nations which failed to apply for the initiative, which is expected to deliver €37bn in biomethane funding alone in the coming years.

Biomethane is a natural gas alternative made from agricultural and food waste via a process known as anaerobic digestion.

Its widespread use — particularly applicable in an Irish context given the size of the State’s agricultural industries — would be expected to reduce emissions across the economy, while also contributing to the decarbonisation of the agrifood sector.

“As I understand it, the two funding projects I saw at one stage, one related to biomethane was to be funded from REPowerEU,” Mr Griffin told PAC vice-chair Catherine Murphy.

“Biomethane is a very important part of our climate action plan. We want to increase the level of biomethane pumped into the gas network,” he added.

A representative from the Department of Public Expenditure, Ken Cleary, told the committee it was “not that Ireland has lost out on anything”.

He said that the commission agreed €20bn in funding grants on October 4, of which Ireland’s potential take would be €89m, but that money cannot be applied for before next year.

“We’ll come up with funding proposals and I’d expect that biomethane will be part of that conversation,” he said.

National Broadband Plan

Meanwhile, the committee heard from Mr Griffin that Ireland’s €2.7bn National Broadband Plan has now connected more than 20,500 premises (against a target of 540,000 premises in rural Ireland by the year 2026) to date, “which is exceeding expectations for this stage of the project”.

He said 102,000 premises will have been ‘passed’, meaning a connection would now be available, by the end of next January. The initial target for passed premises for the end of 2021 had been 115,000.

Last month, it emerged National Broadband Ireland, the company charged with the rollout of the project, had been sanctioned to the tune of €150,000 for failing to meet its targets to date.

Programme director for the department Ferghal Mulligan told the committee the sanctions doled out in 2023 are “likely to be substantially more” in terms of key performance indicators.