Armstrong: Biomethane consultation must deliver what the Assembly already voted for
Ulster Unionist Deputy Leader and Agriculture Spokesperson Diana Armstrong MLA has welcomed the launch of the Biomethane Strategy consultation, six months after the Assembly backed a UUP motion calling for exactly that, and has set out three tests the strategy must meet.
Diana Armstrong said:
“This is welcome, and it is overdue. In April the Assembly passed our motion calling on the Executive to bring forward a cross-departmental biomethane strategy as a matter of urgency. That was six months ago to the day. We now have a consultation, which runs until December, before a strategy is even drafted.
“Robbie Butler called this a once in a generation opportunity when he brought that motion, and he was right. A farm is a business and farm businesses need more than one income. If this is done properly it turns slurry from a liability into a return, and it keeps the value of decarbonisation in rural communities instead of exporting it overseas.
“Our motion set three conditions. The first was a support mechanism that is stable and inflation-proofed, because no farmer is going to borrow against a scheme that might be changed in three years’ time. The second was planning and grid connections, and I would say that is the one farmers will laugh at, because they have watched applications sit for years.
“The third condition is the one that will decide whether this works, and it is the one that gets least attention. Anaerobic digestion changes what form phosphorus is in, it does not remove it. That is exactly why we called for investment in nutrient recovery technology back in April. Get that right and a farmer can take slurry, earn from it, and deal with the nutrient question at the same time. Leave it out and farmers will be blamed all over again for a problem the Department chose not to fund the solution to.
“One more thing. This has to work for family farms, not just for large industrial plants. We have seen before what happens when an uncapped scheme is designed without thinking about scale, and it was not the small farmer who benefited.
“The consultation closes on 15th December and I would encourage every farmer with an interest to respond.”