Mayo TDs support Rabbitte on Corrib

Tuesday, 26 April 2011 11:46

Three of Mayo's Dáil deputies have voted against a Sinn Féin motion calling for a complete review of the licensing and revenue terms and the immediate revoking of the consents given to the Corrib gas consortium. The motion, tabled by Deputy Martin Ferris, also called for the establishment of a State oil, gas and mineral exploration company that would hold a 51 per cent majority share in all oil and gas finds and would have its own research facility in order to collect full and up to date information on reserves.
Deputy Dara Calleary, Deputy Michelle Mulherin and Deputy Michael Ring opposed the motion but did not speak during the debate in Leinster House last Wednesday.
Instead the Mayo TDs supported an amendment by Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte, which 'recognised that the true potential of Ireland's indigenous petroleum resources can only be established through effective exploration'.

Deputy Rabbitte's motion also called on the Government to continue to take measures to attract an increased share of mobile international exploration investment to Ireland.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Deputy John O'Mahony were not in attendance when the debate took place.
Deputy Rabbitte said there is a developing myth that Ireland has vast discoveries of oil and gas off its shores and that imposing a higher rate of tax on the production of these petroleum resources would eliminate all of the country's financial worries.
"Unfortunately, the reality is quite different," he explained.

"There is periodic publicity and not infrequent misrepresentation about a research finding from a study sponsored by my department which estimated there could be in the order of ten billion barrels of oil equivalent in the Irish offshore.
"This is an estimate of the yet-to-find potential of the offshore frontier basins west of Ireland and is based on petroleum systems studies.
"It is an estimate of what might be present based on geological criteria and regional comparisons. Some commentators have chosen to represent this estimate in a manner that would suggest this volume of oil and gas had actually been discovered offshore Ireland.
"Clearly, this is not the case and it is misleading to suggest otherwise. To do so is to ignore the fact that this is simply an estimate of what may be out there but has yet to be found.

"It also ignores the fact that it would take hundreds or thousands of exploration wells to discover if the estimate is accurate. It ignores the fact that even with an intensive and expensive exploration effort, the benefits that would accrue to Ireland would only be realised 10, 15, or 30 years from now.
"The cost of drilling even 100 exploration wells in the Atlantic could be well in excess of €10 billion.
"Sinn Fein argues for a more proactive role by the State. But, at €80 to €100 million spend per hole drilled, I am unsure where the money could be found for that at this time"
Deputy Ferris said the real issue facing the Government is whether or not it has the courage and vision to embark on an alternative path to the disastrous one it has set out on as a consequence of bailing out the banks and accepting the dubious favours of the EU and the IMF.
"The aim of our vision is to set out how our oil and gas resources – it could be expanded to include our fisheries, forestry and wind and wave energy – ought to be used to bring about a revival of enterprise and spirit among our people. This is our alternative to the politics and pessimism of austerity."