Debate contribution: Energy, Food and Environmental Security: Biomethane

Debate contribution by Mr Phillip Brett on 20 April 2026.

MLA

Mr Phillip Brett

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

20 April 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Energy, Food and Environmental Security: Biomethane

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5494134

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the opportunity to once again contribute to a debate in the House on the issue of energy security. For these Benches and for this party, when we discuss the issue of energy, energy security and price control must be the top priorities. Today's debate allows us to have a discussion of the role that biomethane may play in a wider, realistic green energy proposal. It is important to note the House's record and that of the Department when it comes to realistic and proportionate proposals on energy. Renewable energy consumption in Northern Ireland is falling and continues to fall. The dispatch down rate, which is the rate of renewable energy produced in Northern Ireland that cannot be used, continues to rise and has almost hit a record 30%. We need only to read the comments of the Audit Office on the Department for the Economy's energy strategy, which show that £100 million has been spent to date, with only 1% of our targets met. Biomethane may be part of an overall wider solution, but we need to see evidence-informed proposals from the Department. The issue has been part of a wider delay and malaise in the Department for the Economy, particularly in energy division. In 2022, the Department undertook a call for evidence on the production of a biomethane strategy. What have we seen since 2022? In those four years, we have seen absolutely nothing

Does the Member want in? No? OK, no problem. In January 2025, I raised the issue with the Minister in an Assembly question asking for an update on the publication of the strategy. I was told that that would take place in 2026. One year later, I asked the same question, and the answer was:

"Timelines for publication or launch"

— of a strategy —

"will be confirmed once this work progresses further."

It is clear that work on a biomethane strategy by the Department for the Economy is not going anywhere quickly. That speaks to the wider piece in energy. The renewable energy price guarantee scheme, which was meant to be delivered almost a year ago, is nowhere to be seen. Offshore wind policy, which was meant to be introduced in this mandate, has now been shelved by the Department for the Economy in this mandate.

Grid connectivity policy is nowhere to be seen, and, as I said earlier, dispatch down rates continue to rise. That is where the focus of the Department for the Economy and the entire House should be. We do not need a piecemeal approach to energy. We need an overall strategy that deals with those fundamental issues.

The vital point is that we need to get this right. I had hoped to hear from the proposer of the motion on what the "support mechanism" mentioned in the motion would look like. There is an opportunity, given that funding will soon become available as a result of the forthcoming closure of the RHI scheme and the unused annually managed expenditure (AME) there. Importantly, the words of the motion are what we are voting on, and the House needs to have some detail on what a support mechanism will or should look like, yet, when Members come here, they are asked to vote on proposals. The settled will of the Assembly could be that it wants a support mechanism, but we have no detail of what that would look like, how much it would cost and how it would move forward. The Member for West Tyrone rightly outlined the issue of competition for silage, particularly in more rural communities. The focus of the Assembly should be on a complete energy piece that finally brings together the issues that the Member for Lagan Valley, who sits on the Committee with me, continues to raise. We need deliverable, ambitious and structured energy proposals across all sectors of our economy in Northern Ireland. I commend the motion's sponsors for bringing forward one issue within that energy strategy, but we had hoped to hear from the Department and the Minister, and from her able replacement, that there will be a focus on a deliverable action plan. As with Lemony Snicket, a series of unfortunate events has meant that the Minister cannot be here, but there is an important role that the Minister for Infrastructure may wish to highlight in her remarks: the possibility that biomethane could be used in public transport. Rather than looking at the electrification of some of our train provision, particularly on the Belfast to Dublin corridor, there might be an opportunity in her Department to use biomethane. We will let the motion go through today, but I encourage Members to focus on a wider, all-encompassing energy delivery plan that will ensure lower prices and energy security for the people of Northern Ireland.

803 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:26 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification