Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

I wish to share time with Deputy Pearse Doherty.

To listen to Deputies from the Government benches, one would imagine that Shell, Statoil and the great and good of the exploration world were in Ireland to enjoy the air or perhaps take to the high seas with Deputy Ferris. Deputy Lynch should go with them because he is clearly in need of some oxygen.

It has become clear in the course of the debate that the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, has adapted quickly to his new role, accepting on face value the advice given by his officials. What this means is that he has become a mouthpiece for the position first adopted by the Fianna Fáil Party. I note the Minister wants to have things both ways, a position echoed in Deputy Lynch's contribution. On the one hand, he is happy to quote from the 2007 departmental review to justify changing his mind and abandoning Labour Party policy while, on the other, he dismisses the same Department's estimates of the extent of our natural resources. We are informed that these are notional estimates, to use the Minister's words. Is the Department correct that we should continue to provide among the most generous terms in the world to the multinational oil and gas companies but wrong to place a figure on the extent of the reserves it believes lie off our coast? Either the Department is right or it is wrong. The Minister appears to be utterly conflicted on this point.

In his contribution last night, the Minister also outlined the reasons for the various changes that have been made to the terms and conditions governing oil and gas exploration over the years. It clearly slipped his mind that, speaking in the Dáil in 1987 after Ray Burke's change to the regime, his former party leader, Dick Spring, who some Deputies will remember, described Mr. Burke's changes as an act of economic treason. Does that statement ring a bell? The Labour Party has used the same description on subsequent occasions.

As with the Labour Party's Saul-like conversion to the benefit of selling off a substantial chunk of State assets, the Minister appears to have immediately realised, on arriving in his new office, that all of the changes to the benefit of the oil and gas companies were made correctly. This is not what he or his party were saying when they were on this side of the House, nor is it in line with the Labour Party's manifesto commitment to review all the terms and conditions governing the exploration sector.

The Minister concluded his speech by describing the existing tax regime as fit for purpose. The real question is: fit for whose purposes? The Minister also claimed yesterday that the Corrib field will strengthen this State's energy security and move us away from a situation where 95% of the natural gas used here has to be imported. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that this will be the case as there is no onus on the consortium to supply gas here. It could if it wished send the gas out of the country via the interconnector pipelines to Scotland. Even if the Corrib gas is pumped into the Irish grid, the companies will charge the going market rate, which means that consumers here will still be paying the same as they would if the gas were to come from another jurisdiction.

Reference was made to the Fianna Fáil amendment, which is interesting. We hope such a committee will be formed. The Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, yesterday gave a positive nod towards it, and while I understand the Chief Whip has since knocked that off course, nonetheless, we believe it should happen.

I will conclude by quoting the following:

Under Article 10 of the Constitution all natural resources, including all forms of potential energy, belong to the State. Despite this the people of this country have got relatively little return from the minerals or the gas reserves that have been discovered to date. We need to keep the licensing regime under review; we need to do an assessment of the returns for the Irish people; and we need to learn from the experience of other countries that have been far more successful in ensuring a return for their own people from oil and gas discoveries.

I trust the Government benches, particularly the Labour Party colleagues, recognise this because it is a quote from a 2005 press release announcing the tabling of a Labour Party Private Members' Bill not far removed from the intent of the motion before the House today. So, to the Darby O'Gills, the lepreachauní, to those who are fond of claiming that they wear the green jersey, I say stop defending the indefensible. They know full well a review is required.

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