Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)

The Department has also associated obligations to maintain contingency plans, including arrangements for the release of national oil reserves to minimise the adverse effects of a major oil shortage within the framework of a co-ordinated international response. The Fuel Acts 1971 and 1982, and the European Communities (Minimum Stocks of Petroleum Oils) Regulations 1995, put in place measures to safeguard the supply and distribution of oil in an emergency, to meet EU and IEA stockholding obligations, and to ensure the gathering of adequate data regarding consumption, trade and stocks of oil products.

The European Communities (Minimum Stocks of Petroleum Oils) Regulations 1995 provide for the setting up of a national oil reserves agency with delegated responsibility for the maintenance of national oil stock reserves. On 21 July 2004, the Government approved the drafting of the national oil reserves agency Bill——

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