Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)

I thank the Minister for the response. The report will be published next Wednesday. As the Minister stated in his response, in recent months the committee met representatives of different sectors in regard to offshore exploration. While my party may have a more radical view, the Minister will find there is an element of compromise in the report on the part of all concerned for the greater good. The report will be in advance of where we are now but it will be taken in the light of trying to get a better return for our resources. While many arguments were made in the past regarding incentives and so forth, we are at a stage now where the exploration project is in a far better place than it was some years ago. There is a good deal more interest, particularly in regard to security and so forth. Will the Minister give an undertaking that he will come back to the House and debate the report with us? Will he acknowledge that the report is an all-party report by a committee, the majority of whose members are Government TDs and Senators and that it was unanimously supported and adopted by the members of the committee?

See this speech in context