Call for biomethane planning guidelines

A local councillor has called on the government to introduce clear planning guidelines for biomethane facilities, provisions that were included in the draft National Biomethane Strategy but removed before the final document was published.

Sinn Féin councillor Stiofán Conaty raised the issue in the context of proposals to develop an agri-centric anaerobic digester (AD) in Cootehill, with Gas Networks Ireland also having earmarked Cootehill and a number of other towns - Bailieborough, Virginia, Shercock, Cavan Town, Ballyconnell and Kingscourt - for potential future investment.

Addressing Cavan County Council’s January monthly meeting, Cllr Conaty said he had attended a “closed-doors meeting” with the company behind the proposed Cootehill facility, a meeting to which “the wider community was not invited”.

“As public representatives, we were sold all the benefits and none of the pitfalls,” he said. “We left that meeting feeling positive, with the assurance that everything would be rosy and dandy. To believe what we heard that night, this would be among the best things ever to happen to Cootehill and anyone opposed to it was simply ill-informed.”

Cllr Conaty said he recognised that, as Ireland moves towards decarbonisation, there is a “growing acceptance” that AD and biomethane plants will be necessary to support the transition to a carbon-neutral economy.

“I’m not an expert on the science,” he said, “but from what I’ve learned, biomethane in principle appears to have many benefits. Particularly for County Cavan and the Border Region, it could help address our large volumes of chicken and pig manure, which are otherwise difficult to dispose of.”

He added that biomethane production has the potential to support farmers and rural communities by creating additional income streams, reducing waste disposal costs, producing nutrient-rich biofertilisers, creating jobs and stimulating rural economies.

“I don’t dispute any of that,” he said, “but the key word here is ‘rural’.”

Worried

In the interim, Cllr Conaty said he had met with and received “extensive representations” from “very concerned residents” in the Cootehill area.

“It’s fair to say a huge number of locals are very worried,” he told the meeting, noting that the Cootehill Biogas Concern Group had formed in recent weeks with the sole aim of opposing the development.

He read a statement from the group, which said significant effort had gone into building Cootehill into a “vibrant” industrial town, an achievement they believe is now threatened by the proposed arrival of 55 million litres of animal slurry and its associated impacts. These include concerns about pollution, odours, noise, heavy traffic, health and safety risks, falling property values and damage to community wellbeing.

The group also highlighted the proposed location’s proximity to Holy Family School, which they said demonstrated a disregard for residents. While supporting biogas in principle, the group believes such plants should be located in rural areas, not in a residential town of more than 1,800 people.

Cllr Conaty said that, aside from the meeting with elected members, the only direct engagement with residents had been through an online meeting.

Biomethane production, he said, remains a “relatively new and unfamiliar technology” in Ireland, and without proper consultation it is “only natural” that communities would have “very real and legitimate concerns”.

He criticised the government for failing to publish “clear guidelines” on where such facilities can be safely located, guidelines that were included in the draft National Biomethane Strategy commissioned by the previous government.

“I don’t know what happened between the finalisation of the draft report and its passage through Cabinet,” he said, “but by the time the strategy was officially adopted, the requirement for planning guidelines appears to have been massively watered down, if not removed altogether.”

He questioned why the focus appeared to be on locating facilities in towns and built-up areas rather than in the countryside, where their impacts, he said, “would be lessened”.

“As a state, we have set ambitious targets, with plans to build between 140 and 200 new anaerobic digestion facilities in the coming years,” he said. “Make no mistake- this rollout is coming like a wave to County Cavan and the wider Border Region. Before it happens, we must ensure proper planning guidelines are in place to identify the most suitable locations.”

Fear and tension

Fine Gael councillor Carmel Brady said the debate around the proposal had “grown arms and legs”, particularly on social media.

“There is a lot of fear and a lot of tension,” she said, not just in Cootehill but in surrounding areas. While she felt the proposed site was “not proper”, Cllr Brady stressed the importance of gathering all facts and information before the situation risked “getting out of hand”.

Her party colleague, Cllr Val Smith, said he left the initial meeting feeling that elected members had been told “what we wanted to hear”, and agreed that the location was unsuitable.

Fianna Fáil councillor Clifford Kelly also opposed the proposed site, describing it as “completely wrong”. He pointed to existing traffic problems on the Cavan Road in Cootehill and suggested the development would be better suited to a rural location.

Cathaoirleach John Paul Feeley (FF) cautioned members that the discussion was beginning to stray beyond the scope of the original motion.

Fine Gael councillor Winston Bennett said he was “not saying it’s the right location” for the Cootehill AD, but noted that similar developments had taken place elsewhere “without problems”. He added that anaerobic digestion would serve a critical national need in the years ahead, whether the facility was ultimately built in Cootehill or elsewhere.