Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The transposition of the offshore safety directive, which is the purpose of this Bill, is to ensure consistent regulation throughout Europe with respect to the potential for major petroleum incidents. It is important we learn from other countries. In the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, we have tried to source staff from countries with very rich experience of working in the industry. We nearly recruited a member of staff from another country to our Department to share expertise but it did not happen. It is important, however, that we continue to aspire to this. Ireland should not be trying to reinvent the wheel if there are various models available.

With respect to the flaring of gas, the technology in question has more than one purpose. At a gas processing terminal, for example, flaring of gas can be necessary for safety reasons. More generally, gas flaring is contentious where the technology is used in the context of a producing oilfield. Gas that is produced along with oil is sometimes flared as processing it would not be commercially viable. If in the future Ireland has a commercial oil development and the flaring of gas is proposed, that proposal will be subject to an environmental impact assessment, including a public consultation process.

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