Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)

I support the motion by the Independent Deputies calling on the House and the Government to recognise the fundamental principle that oil and gas reserves within the control of the State belong to the Irish people and that these must be recovered and used in a way that benefits the majority of the people and not just powerful corporate interests, and calling for the immediate scrapping of the give away legislation and the introduction of a realistic tax take with royalties and an automatic stake of 50% in any oil or gas discovery.

The current taxation situation is seriously out of date and flawed. The hydrocarbon legislation, which goes back to the Finance Act 1992, allowed for 25% corporation tax, which was then reduced to 12.5%, the lowest in the world. That may have been understandable in the early 1990s but when we now know there are huge oil and gas reserves off the west coast, it is unbelievable that the Government would continue to allow this.

A total of 33 wells will be drilled in this area off the west coast in the next six years. Up to 15 of those will be development wells sunk into identified oil and gas finds. Between six and ten wells will be drilled in areas already licensed to oil companies. There are huge oil and gas reserves in that area. The current situation is an absolute giveaway. This motion calls for the benefits of those oil and gas resources to be made available to the majority of the people, not just the powerful corporate interests, and that they be brought ashore in Ireland and used for the benefit of the people.

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