Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The proposal to which the Deputy refers was made in a print media article that began with a statement that Ireland was about to sign away almost all of our resources on terms by far the worst in the developed world. In reply I pointed out that both claims were factually wrong and demonstrated that the fiscal terms applying to profits from oil and gas production in Ireland were pitched at a level comparable with that in other similar European countries. In addition, I explained that under the 2011 Atlantic margin licensing round, applications were only received for approximately 6% of the area on offer. While the number of applications received was positive in comparison to the number received in previous licensing rounds, it still means that for the vast majority of Ireland's offshore, no exploration work is taking place. Having established that the reasoning giving rise to the proposal was flawed, it follows that the proposal was without basis.

The challenge for Ireland is not how to manage its natural resources but how to attract a sufficient level of exploration investment to establish our offshore oil and gas potential. Even with our current fiscal regime which is deliberately aimed at attracting new investment, exploration levels remain very modest.

If Ireland were to hand over a half share of its oil and gas resources to another country, apart from being an entirely daft proposal, it follows that the potential return that could be offered to incentivise oil companies to invest in exploration here would have to be reduced significantly. At current levels, the incentive has delivered modest results. If it were to be more than halved, that could end all exploration efforts in our offshore which would not be in our interests.

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