Mr. Frank Sheridan:

The minerals development Bill seeks to consolidate and modernise legislation on exploration and extraction of minerals replacing a corpus of legislation from 1940 through to 1999.

On foot of the considerable efforts of the Parliamentary Counsel's office the draft Bill, which is substantial, is now ready for publication, subject to such legal or technical amendments as may be agreed with the Attorney General or suggested by the Ministers when considered by Government. The draft of the Bill was at an advanced stage when, in November 2013, the Government adopted the policy to present the general scheme or draft heads of a Bill to the committee for pre-legislative consideration. While the pre-legislative scrutiny process ordinarily occurs at the early stage of preparation of a Bill, the Chief Whip's office has endorsed the Minister's proposal that this committee be afforded the opportunity to consider the minerals development Bill in advance of its circulation to Departments and submission to Government for approval. This best complies with the spirit of pre-legislative scrutiny arrangements and affords committee members an opportunity to provide input before the Bill is finalised.

The heads of the Bill were approved by Government in 2006. In the meantime other urgent and priority legislative initiatives have impacted progress on the draft statute. In the interim there has been positive activity in the sector whereby the number of active minerals and prospecting licences in place equals that of the highest on record. There are positive indications from ongoing exploration activity and the addition to the forecast life of mine for the Bloiden Tara Mines Limited operation at Navan, arising from licensing of the south-west extension.

The economic assessment of the contribution of the minerals sector to the economy which was published in 2013 indicates that it is an important sector and a vital contributor to the regional economy in the vicinity of operating mines. In 2012, Ireland was Europe's largest producer of zinc metal in concentrate and the tenth largest producer in the world, a ranking that continued into 2014. Output in mining, as measured by sales turnover, amounted to more than €426 million in 2012 and the activities of exploration and mining companies resulted in a total employment figure of 3,306 full-time equivalents, almost all of whom are employed outside Dublin. The low import content in mining activity is important. When indirect and induced economic activity is considered the overall value from the sector amounted to €810 million in 2012, nearly double the direct production value. To that end it is important that there be in place a modern statutory code suitable for the effective stewardship and development of the sector as well as to foster the discovery of new mineral deposits.

The purpose of the Bill is to make better provision for the prospecting for and development, management and control of the mineral resources of the State in the interest of better regulation and to ensure that as many provisions as possible, pertaining to the minerals prospecting and mining, are contained in a minimum of statutes. Most of the provisions of the Minerals Developments Acts 1940 to 1999 will be restated and those Acts will be repealed where appropriate.

The minerals Bill is likely to be one of the larger pieces of legislation that will come before the Oireachtas this year with almost 250 sections. It will modernise and update all minerals legislation since the foundation of the State.

I would hope that the following presentation will convey to the committee a sense of the scope, as the acting Chairman said, scale and complexity of the Bill and that my colleagues, Dr. Eileen Doyle, principal geologist, and Mr. Brian Breslin from the minerals exploration and mining division and I can be of assistance to members' consideration of the draft Bill in advance of publication. I invite my colleague, Mr. Brian Breslin, to guide the committee through the presentation we have prepared.