Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

With all due respect to the Minister of State, I am sorry that the Minister, Deputy Hogan, is not present because he will be taking the decision on the Providence Resources foreshore licence. My appeal is to him in the first instance but also to the Government more generally to reject the Providence Resources foreshore licence application to drill for oil or gas in Dublin Bay.

It has been suggested that those who are concerned or opposed to the drilling live in Dalkey and the immediate vicinity of the proposed drilling. I want to emphasise that this is an issue for the whole of Dublin Bay and has wider national ramifications in terms of environmental, public consultation and planning issues, as well as the management of this country's natural resources.

The proposed drilling is to take place 6 km off Dalkey. Even Providence Resources admits there would be potential for oil spills. The Government has to understand if there was an oil spill that close to the coast the whole of Dublin Bay would be contaminated within hours. There would simply be no way to prevent the oil coming ashore. As I understand it, it will not be the responsibility of Providence Resources to prevent that happening, rather it would be the Irish Coast Guard. We would have no chance of stopping major contamination of the entirety of Dublin Bay, given the proximity of such oil drilling if the project goes into production as an oil well.

That is a risk too far for Dublin Bay. Any economic advantages that we might hope to derive from producing oil or gas would be completely outweighed by the environmental damage that would be done to one of the most important natural amenities in this country and the most important natural amenity in Dublin. It could ruin tourism, the marine environment, our beaches and our natural heritage and do all sorts of damage which makes the risk too great to take.

One might consider taking that risk if there was some significant economic advantage. I would not take the risk, but some people who are desperate, given the current economic climate, might think it is a risk worth taking if the State got something back in terms of jobs and revenue. Such is the licensing arrangement in this country that we will get virtually nothing back.

The company is allowed to write off 25 years of previous losses and capital costs before tax kicks in on any profits it would make. Given the fact that Providence Resources is partnered by an Malaysian multinational, there would also be the opportunity of transfer pricing of costs incurred elsewhere in the multinational which means that virtually nothing would come back to the State. The only beneficiaries would be Providence Resources and a Malaysian multinational.

In these circumstances, there is simply no case whatsoever for allowing drilling close to the coastline in Dublin Bay. In Norway, no oil drilling takes place closer than 25 km to the coast. Wherever there is oil drilling, there is a public inquiry. The Government is refusing to grant a public inquiry on this licence. In Norway, the state gets 70% of the profits and revenues from oil production, while we will get next to nothing. I appeal to the Minister of State not to take risks with Dublin Bay, reject the foreshore license application and, at an absolute minimum, give us a public inquiry before any decision is made to grant such a licence.

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