Mr. Brian Breslin:

Ultimately, the legislation gives the right to drill in search of minerals. That is in the 1940 Act and will continue in this legislation under a prospecting licence but it is regulated, controlled and limited. The reason these powers are given is nobody knows where minerals are. They do not just advertise themselves. Drilling is a relatively rare activity. There are more than 500 prospecting licences at any given time, only a small fraction of which drill. Drilling is an expensive activity that is only undertaken where the holder of the licence believes there is sufficient evidence to justify it and to prove whether there is a deposit. Drilling usually takes place from the surface straight down and occasionally at angles. It is not used as a method of extracting minerals. It is only an exploratory and analytical tool to determine what the character and extent of the minerals underlying the land. Government policy over successive years has maintained the view that it is in the national interest that the nation's mineral resources be identified. It is better to know that they are there than not and to do that, we need to allow people to carry out drilling where it is justified.

By its nature, it is an interference with private property rights but it is justified in line with the protection of such rights in the Constitution because it is in the national interest that these minerals be identified. Once identified, a mine is a totally different activity. The extraction of the minerals and their production in commercial quantities is a major operation, which takes years to plan and bring into development. The planning process is where all this activity is analysed in the minutest detail as to how the mine will be operated, where the ground will be broken, where the minerals will be extracted, where they will be processed, where the waste will be stored and so on. That is examined through the environmental impact assessment process and the public, in general, and the landowners, in particular, have rights under the planning process to object to this activity. The Minister does not have the final say on whether planning permission is granted under the Minerals Development Act 1940. That is a matter for the planning authorities. Unless best practice is applied in how the mine is designed, conceived, developed and closed, planning permission will not be granted.