Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)

Although the Independent Members' motion is about our oil and natural gas resources, it is also about a particular mindset. The Government, which we entrust with managing our taxes and providing for our future, is on a permanent selling spree as seen with Eircom, State-owned buildings and, soon, Aer Lingus. Either that or it is on a give away of our natural resources of gas and oil, as our Minister prepares to license further areas of the Atlantic on give away terms. I understand the oil companies must be offered a sweetener but the Minister is handing over the entire sugar bowl. The generous terms offered could perhaps be understood 20 years ago when there was no clear evidence of what lay under the Atlantic seabed. In recent years, however, we have found out the potential and there is no reasonable explanation for the continuation of such generous terms.

Looking at our counterparts in Norway and across the Irish Sea, we see a different picture. The Norwegian state has a substantial stake in Statoil and, coupled with a reasonable tax take, Government petroleum revenues will be approximately €40 billion in 2005 alone. To put this in context, when we launched the national development plan in 1999 for 2000-06, we were looking at expenditure of €40 billion over six years. We may or may not have the same reserves as Norway but we are not investing wisely or prudently like it did. We are not protecting the economic interests of this or future generations. We have a valuable natural resource that is running out worldwide and that increases in value every week but we still persist in giving it away.

The first line of the Government amendment states the development of Ireland's natural resources benefits the citizens of this State. This is patently untrue because of the extraordinarily generous terms offered to multinational oil companies. Equally, it is not true on a regional basis. Before the last election, two Ministers promised the delivery of gas to the west and north west, with Sligo and Letterkenny named. They used a Cabinet decision to that effect to garner votes in the election but since then the Government has continuously backtracked from that commitment.

In the final analysis, it does not matter where the gas is coming from, the pipeline must be built. The people of the west are being asked to take the risk with no guaranteed benefit in return.

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