Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I have no difficulty with that. I remember putting a question to one of the Minister's predecessors, the late Gerry O'Sullivan, when he was Minister of State at the Department of the Marine, because people were telling me that resources were being sold at a very cheap price. I was told the prices were not a ministerial give-away but the right terms. The Department was very defensive of the terms at that time. Fianna Fáil was not in Government at that time and I was a backbencher. I raised the issue because people had come to me to say the terms were far too favourable towards the oil companies. Since that day, this debate has rumbled on, year after year. If only to assuage public opinion, I cannot understand why the Minister could be against a committee inviting people of different views to put their case before the elected representatives of the people. Why could the Department not make its case available to a committee, as it would to a Minister? An Oireachtas committee could then make a report based on its findings and we could try to build consensus on this issue, for the good of the people.

There are very few things in life that could not, with sufficient debate, be improved for the future. For all sorts of legal and constitutional reasons, one cannot undo past terms. That would become clear in an examination. I do not want to express the views I may have formed over years of reading data. That would pre-empt the very thing I want to do, which is to start with a clean sheet and look at the issue. We must check what lessons are to be learned from history. I do not believe one can undo licences that have already been granted. Many of them are running out and no exploration is taking place. We must also see what is to be learned for any future licensing round to ensure that the State gets the best return.

There has been a debate as to whether the State should become an active player, as happened in Norway. I would be interested in hearing what the Norwegians have to say about investment in Ireland, because of the much higher risk factors involved in Irish waters. I would love to know if, given our circumstances, they would have followed the same policy as they followed in Norway, where the rate of success was much greater.

At the beginning of this new Dáil, I ask that we get out of the trenches and see if we can let Dáil committees do what we are always saying they should do, that is, carry out thorough examinations of issues.

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