Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I am very sceptical. Under the present licensing round the companies will be given a permit for two years to do the necessary exploration activity. After that, they have three years to drill and if they do not drill it is a case of use or lose it. They have to drill. We will see. I hope Deputy Boyd Barrett and I will still be in the House at that time and I hope bountiful resources will be found. Deputy Boyd Barrett must acknowledge that whether the tax rate is between 25% and 40%, as it is now, or 50% as he and Sinn Féin want, 50% of nothing is nothing. I hope and believe we have prospects but we have not found anything. What I am trying to do is strike a balance between bringing in companies to establish what are our reserves on the one hand while not frightening them away on the other. That is the challenge that confronts us.

See this speech in context