Watch: 'Farmers have to be paid for what they produce' - CEO
The CEO of the Irish Bioenergy Association (IrBEA), Seán Finan has said that farmers have to be paid fairly for the feedstocks they produce.
Finan was speaking to Agriland at the first ever Biomethane Day Ireland event, sponsored by Nephin, in Dublin yesterday, June 2025.
He believes that the biomethane sector offers huge opportunities to Ireland's agricultural and farming sectors.
The IrBEA CEO also highlighted that the National Biomethane Strategy, which was published last May (2024), sets out the government's vision for the sector.
Finan said: "There will be an opportunity for farmers to get involved as investors in those facilities, but also as suppliers of feedstocks to those facilities, and to be paid for their silage and other foodstocks that they may provide.
"The other opportunity that the biomethane sector provides to agriculture is, that in a circular system that the digestate which is the product left after the anaerobic digestion process, that can be returned to the land as a fertiliser, and organic fertiliser," he added.
Finan explained that digestate is a different product to raw slurry, because the nutrients and nitrogen are more available, and because it offers an opportunity for displacement of chemical fertiliser.
He said: "In order to develop a biomethane plant it's a very capital intensive investment. So there's support from government required in terms of doing that.
"The government is talking about is a renewable heat obligation (RHO) scheme, which is an obligation scheme on the fossil fuel market to include a certain percentage of renewable fuel in their energy mix."
"That's the mechanism of choice, as well as the capital support grant. What that means is, that once the sector is supported to grow and develop their biomethane facilities, they will then have the ability to purchase feedstocks, and that will provide an economic opportunity for farmers," Finan added.
The IrBEA CEO highlighted that farmers, and everyone along the supply chain, need to be paid for the foodstock that they produce.
"There is a realisation within the IrBEA, within our members who are the biomethane producers and developers, that if you don't pay farmers for their feedstocks at the rates and the prices that they actually require, then you won't get those feedstocks for the sector," Finan explained.
"That would be a missed opportunity and lost opportunity, for not alone the farmers but also for the for the developers in developing these facilities," he added.
