The Government's approach to biofuel production was criticised as "piecemeal" yesterday by the head of a leading biofuels company.
Bioverda chief executive John Mullins told the Teagasc national tillage conference in Carlow that Ireland was almost at the bottom of the EU league in biofuel usage. Bioverda, a subsidiary of utility group National Toll Roads, has failed to get excise relief on its operations.
Mr Mullins, whose company is going ahead with developing large scale biodiesel facilities in Ireland, the UK, Spain and the US, said there was far less support from Government here for the industry than in other parts of Europe.
"In fact we are laggards in Europe because we are 24 out of 25 in the EU in terms of biofuel usage," he told the conference, which was attended by over 500 tillage farmers from across the State.
Mr Mullins said he was unhappy with the system used recently by the Government to determine what companies would get €200 million in excise relief for biofuels, for which there were 102 applications based on the answers to a questionnaire.
"I don't think this was a good system, not because we did not get the relief, but I believe those taking part should have had the chance to make a different kind of submission," he said.
While he was not criticising the panel which made the decision, he had to question the fact that most of the relief went to companies importing and distributing biofuels rather than manufacturing them.
Mr Mullins said his company was proceeding with its €50 million biofuel production facility in Cork harbour, which would, when completed next year, produce approximately 200,000 tonnes of biodiesel per year.
He also told the conference that he questioned the closing down of the sugar industry here. While he accepted this was not a Government but an EU decision, he expected beet production would return to Ireland as a rotation and energy crop.
"It should also be noted that the price of sugar has increased since the closure of the Irish plants and that 15 of Europe's former sugar beet plants have converted over to ethanol production," he said.
There was an upbeat air surrounding the conference yesterday when cereal farmers were told by an international grain trader, Michael Engelbach of Cefra Ltd, Rotterdam, that world grain prices had rallied.
This was because of reduced wheat output worldwide and increased demand from Asia and the Far East, especially India and China.