Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister and I am glad to have an opportunity to make a few points on the report. I am not a member of the joint committee that prepared it. However, I commend the work of Deputy Andrew Doyle and the committee, including Fianna Fáil Senators Paschal Mooney and Mark Daly who would have participated in this debate but are unable to be here for it.

The points made by the Minister are not lost on me. We do not want to scare away the few prospectors who come our way. More should be done to attract exploration companies to Ireland. There are, clearly, scientific reasons certain areas are more rich in natural resources than others, but when one considers that there are 300 fields in the United Kingdom and three in Ireland, it makes sense that we should do all we can to increase the drilling taking place and ensure we extract the maximum amount.

I am also conscious that we must obtain an appropriate return from the resources at our disposal. While a 40% figure is radical, it is something that could be looked at. Oil and gas are finite resources and their supply will decrease rather than increase. In that context, we would have little to fear in striking a rate that was higher. Exploration companies would still come. As the Minister pointed out, we enjoy political stability and a number of factors are in our favour. The Minister has said they are not exclusive to Ireland, but they will become more exclusive as time passes. Because we are dealing with finite resources we would have nothing to fear in underlining the return we must get for them. Large companies are prepared to put considerable resources into what may turn out to be fruitless drilling expeditions.

I am interested in the report's recommendation that we engage with our Norwegian and Portuguese colleagues and other countries with which we have direct relationships and which might be more intimately involved in exploration and not as dependent on the expertise of exploration companies as we are. We might learn from them how to increase our involvement, or about the potential for joint ventures with exploration companies in order to maximise our return. If we are not prepared to charge 40% on profits, there may be scope for us to have a piece of the action if we are prepared to take some of the risk. We may be able to enjoy some of the profits of fruitful offshore exploration.

In Ireland we tend not to have retrospective legislation or taxation. While I appreciate that reputational issues are at play, I would not overvalue reputation. The entire world's reputation has been damaged in recent years on a great many levels. Doing the right thing can supersede any reputational damage. We might look to South American countries, although the reputations of some of them might not be great. Venezuela completely redesigned its hydrocarbon legislation to the benefit of the state. The Minister has said he is not in favour of upping the return to 40% for all new licences, but is there potential to look at existing licences to see if we could extract more from them? Resources are finite and a limited number of revenue streams are available to us, particularly in these times of recession. Is this something at which we could look? Is there a commercial angle for the State in existing licensing arrangements? It would be foolish not to throw our eyes over this, in the event that an opportunity could be spotted.

I agree with much of what the Minister has said. I commend those who participated in compiling the report and hope the Minister and his officials will be able to reflect on some of the points I have raised.

While we have him here, the Minister might comment on the fracking issue which is important in my part of the country. Senators Paschal Mooney, Imelda Henry, John Kelly and Diarmuid Wilson also come from the part of the country affected by it. I know the Minister is aware of the huge fears in the area, which I share. My stated position, for now, is that I am against fracking. There seem to be mixed messages and individual and group agendas at play. Listening to media interviews with representatives of the company, I am not imbued with confidence by their car salesman approach. I heard the chief executive of the company on Ocean FM, speaking from Hong Kong. The fear of people in the north west and the Shannon basin is justified, when one considers that France, a country hardly noted for its energy conservatism, has suspended all fracking activities, pending further investigation. A longer term study in the United States will not produce conclusive results for quite a few years. I know the Minister has spoken with the EPA. It is being suggested that if it wants more resources from the Department, it should give more detailed answers to the questions people are asking.

I have always promoted western development. The north west, being peripheral, needs extra help. If there is a bounty in the earth that can help that region and be extracted safely, we will all cheerlead for it. For now, however, there are so many variables at play that I am concerned about damage to the water table and other environmental by-products of this activity. On the one hand one has the polished car salesman approach of the company and, on the other, one has what people might describe as propaganda-type films - one was shown previously but I have never seen it. In the middle there are many people who have genuine concerns. I hope the Minister can enlighten us somewhat on it. Sometimes the enlightenment might be that we cannot do anything currently because the information is inconclusive. In the event that the information available to the Minister is inconclusive then the safest thing to do is to do nothing until such time as we have conclusive, detailed information available to us. I apologise for going off on a tangent on fracking but I took the opportunity to say it given the presence of the Minister.