Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I am answering the question. As regards the second issue raised by the Deputy, the five people concerned are in jail because of a High Court decision. There is a separation of powers in this State between the Executive and the Judiciary and despite the Deputy's attitude, I would not do anything to breach a decision of the courts. As regards helping through mediation, I have already answered a constructive question from Deputy Kenny on that point.

As regards previous decisions, in 1992 the Government revised the licensing terms in order to stimulate exploration with the objective of increasing the State's petroleum supply from indigenous resources. These have been accepted by all Governments in the interim. Petroleum leases enjoy a special tax regime and are not subject to royalties or production related levies in this country. Despite the allegations that the terms are overly generous, there has been a severely low level of take up here compared to other countries. Therefore, the view that these great terms were given and then used and abused is just not true. This has been covered over a period of 13 or 14 years.

We will do anything we can to help constructively. What the Deputy has said is entirely misleading and untrue. He should have thought of a better case over the summer than to come to the House and purport all these things happened outside the terms of the law to these unfortunate people who are arguing a case.

The application to the Department was for an onshore terminal and the assessment was carried out on that basis. All the environmental and safety studies, up to the current ones, are based on that, as the Deputy knows.

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