An Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said that he hopes there will be “lots of incentives” to encourage farmers to get involved in renewable energy production in the climate action plan.

“I haven’t seen the draft yet, I don’t think there’ll be any major surprises,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal at the Agromek show in Denmark.

“It is the annual plan. People will know already what the targets are and what the overall mission is in terms of reducing emissions from agriculture.

“I’ve been really impressed here in Denmark at Agromek at some of the things I’ve seen, very much seeing farmers in Denmark embracing low emissions slurry spreading systems, often provided by Irish companies, and a huge amount of biogas here.

Incentives

“What I hope will be in it will be lots of incentives to encourage farmers to get involved in renewable energy production, whether it's solar, microgeneration or anaerobic digestion. I don’t think there is anything to fear in it, it will be very much in line with what people have seen so far,” he said.

When asked what can be done make renewable energy generation a real attractive income for farmers, without restrictions such as exporting to the grid, he said that restrictions are there for a reason.

Where we want to be, is to encourage and assist farmers to get involved in renewables

“The way the grid works, there is only so much that you can put into it. It’s designed to distribute electricity out and not in, so there are limits.

“Then, obviously, if someone paid for solar panels or a small turbine with a grant, they have a competitive advantage over someone who didn’t get the grant. So, sometimes people get annoyed about restrictions, but when you understand why they’re there, they often make sense.

“The bottom line, and where we want to be, is to encourage and assist farmers to get involved in renewables both to power the farm and where appropriate to sell back into the grid. There’s so many rooftops and roofs of sheds that could be covered in solar panels,” he said.

An Tánaiste added that it “wasn’t attractive enough” in the past for farmers to get into renewable energy.

Biogas

He hopes to see a big push to get farmers into biogas production in 2023.

“I would really hope we’d have that under way next year. I can’t guarantee that, but that would be the ambition.

"We all know that we’re going to need to use gas for a long time, it’s going to be part of our energy mix for at least another 20 years, if not closer to 40.

“The more we can blend biogas with methane brought in from overseas the better. There is a biofuel obligation that people will be familiar with when it comes to petrol and diesel, I’d like to see us embracing that when it comes to gas and not just be using imported gas and gas from the Corrib gas field, but actually be using our own biogas and blending it into the system,” he said.

Reshuffle

He said there have been no discussions yet between the parties on the cabinet reshuffle in December, when An Taoiseach Micheál Martin will swap places with Varadkar.

“We haven’t had any discussions yet between the parties on that. We haven’t sought any portfolio that we don’t currently have, but any discussion on swapping department briefs would have to happen among the party leaders and it hasn’t as yet.”

He says he is happy with the job that Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has done.

“I didn’t know Charlie well at all two and a half years ago, but I got to work with him very closely. Very solid minister, a difficult job for a first-time minister but I think he’s done it well.”