Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

Does Deputy Ferris dispute that? I come in here to make reasonable points. We want to find and develop our natural resources. We will not achieve that by having an adversarial debate here.

The Government amendment recognises the need to evolve the whole tariff and tax regime. Both Britain and Norway have abolished royalties, they have tax regimes. As we find oil and gas and develop an industry, people will come to us looking for a piece of the action and we will then be able to charge higher tax rates; it is recommended they increase from 25% to 40%. We can do this but the manner proposed by Sinn Féin will not achieve it, it will turn people away. If we even had €1 billion left where we could dig 20 wells at €50 million each with the chance of finding one oil field, I would not recommend it. However, we do not have that money.

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