Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

From 2006 to 2009 there were rounds of oil and gas exploration which did not generate a lot of interest so a new approach was taken in the 2011 round. It involved making all unlicensed acreage within the Atlantic basins available in a single licensing round and also to make data available. The data were sold commercially to provide the greatest level of information about them to spark interest from interested parties. Some 43 applications for licensing options were received from 17 companies by the close of the round in September 2015. A process was gone through and there was an evaluation of applications. In February 2016, the 14 new licensing options were offered. A further 14 were offered in June 2016. There have been reports suggesting there are millions of euro worth of potential oil and gas available but it is only through active exploration that the potential of the Irish offshore can be discovered. There are costs associated with this. There has been private investment of €3 billion in recent years to try to strike oil and gas. Obviously the State does not have the resources and probably should not be involved in it. That is why there is licensing and private companies involved.