Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

We must put this in context. There is an oral hearing in the planning process and the actual environmental impact process will deal with this, as will the Environmental Protection Agency. It is important to remember that the CER will be represented at these hearings. It is not the case that the public will be outside the loop concerning the safety of what is being proposed in individual projects. They will be in the loop because we have a planning process that allows them to be.

With respect to Deputies Coveney and McManus, who have borne with this legislation, if we add an extra layer here we will invite further potential vexatious or ideologically motivated ambushes. As I said earlier in the debate, the process is already causing significant problems from the perspective of investment in offshore exploration in Ireland. I agree with Deputy Coveney that we are at the nub of it here. As Minister of State with responsibility for natural resources, I am speaking from personal experience when I say that innumerable people have decided not to invest here, or not to apply for licences, precisely because of the reputation we have generated for ourselves as a result of the Corrib project. Although I have only been in this job since last May, I am aware of a number of cases in which approaches were made by investors and people on the ground who represent international exploration companies. Their personnel and key executives on the ground were very positive about investing in Ireland. They accepted that we have tried to streamline the process and make it easier for them to invest here and create jobs. When they returned to their global boards, in London or elsewhere, the boards decided not to invest because of what they had seen, read and heard from their own analysts at headquarters level. They did not believe their own executives.

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