Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When it comes to things like oil exploration, certainty is very important. To change a tax regime is not something one does with great frequency because the investment period, exploration period and development period can be quite long. To do it once and fix the date is acceptable, but to start moving dates back or forward at this stage would be imprudent and could be damaging. Since this was done, there has not been a lot of drilling. With energy prices having gone down so much in the past year, we probably will not see a rush to drill in deep Atlantic waters.

To give the Deputy a better insight, the number of explorations and appraisals of wells that took place between 2003 and 2013 was 17 in Ireland, 857 in the UK and 445 in Norway. Those explorations led to no commercial discovery in Ireland, 56 discoveries in the UK and 71 in Norway. In terms of results, therefore, we are not as fruitful as the other countries to which there is frequent reference in these discussions. In Ireland, the probability of a discovery on drilling of a well is one in eight and the probability of a commercial discovery is one in 32. In the UK, the probabilities are one in four and one in six, respectively, and, in Norway, one in two and one in seven, respectively.