Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that, but the point I make is that there seems be a disengagement from the point of view of an Oireachtas committee setting out a report with recommendations. There is no clear path and no clear timescale for the committee’s considerations to be put before the House and the Minister. It is a case of waiting for someone to do something rather than having a clearly defined path for the generation of debate. Perhaps if there were a clearly defined path we could all have engaged in the process rather than me doing my thing and the Minister doing his thing. That could be what is missing from the way we do business.

The debate on this country’s oil and gas has continued for many years. The Minister will recall that in the 1970s he was campaigning, as was I, for a review of Ireland’s tax take from its natural resources. The then Labour Minister, Justin Keating, responded by introducing legislation based on best international practice which claimed a 50% stake in oil and gas extracted from Irish waters. However, the years that followed saw the propagation of a myth – the Minister and I disagree profoundly on the issue - that argued that this country needs low oil and gas taxation in order to promote exploration and develop our oil and gas industry. That view was well supported by the oil and gas companies and by certain media outlets that had vested interests in an oil and gas company. They argued that unless we kept our tax take from our natural resources artificially low, we would not reap the benefits from their rewards.

The same lobby also pushed the myth that under the current system the Irish people would have access to cheap oil and gas, allowing them to heat their homes and run their cars far more cheaply than their European neighbours. That was, and is, untrue. Not only do Irish people have to pay the market value for their oil and gas, but the petroleum itself does not even have to be brought ashore in Ireland. These are the people’s resources, yet under the current system Irish people potentially have little or nothing to gain from them.

The reversal of the legislation introduced by Justin Keating during the 1980s and the 1990s has resulted in an underdeveloped oil and gas industry. The Minister referred to Norway. I agree that we do not have the same finds of oil and gas as in Norway. However, one should recall that Norway was told the very same thing by the oil and gas industry and the media in the 1970s. In 1972, Norway voted to establish a state oil and gas company. At the time, oil and gas companies said they would not explore in Norway. The Norwegian Government said that was okay and that it would leave the resources in the ground. The companies did not leave it. They came and eventually agreed with the government’s point of view. Statoil was founded, which served to further the interests of Norway’s citizens in petroleum affairs. Some 40 years later petroleum is the backbone of Norway’s economy. It is currently the world’s second largest gas exporter and the seventh largest oil exporter. Its oil and gas exports have served to cement the country’s sovereignty and independence in the world field. While Norway boomed, Ireland lagged behind.

According to a 2006 report carried out by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, there is approximately 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent off our western coast, composed of 6.5 billion barrels of oil and 20 trillion cu. ft. of gas. At current oil prices, that equates to a value of approximately €540 billion.

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