Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)

I can think of many more productive uses for public money than speculating in this way. It is for this reason that option two is not an option as far as I or the Government is concerned. The third option I mentioned has been the foundation of Government policy in this State for decades and has been supported and embraced by all Governments for many years. We have encouraged competent private sector companies to invest in the search for and production of oil and gas in Irish waters and have benefited financially from that. We spread the risk across these agencies and as a result, derive some benefit from our natural resources. The Opposition, which framed this motion, would have the taxpayer take all the risk.

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