Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom iar-úair teachtarach a thuairt go dtí an seanad inniú. Bhí mé ag criunniú poibli i nGaillaimh leis na draonn a bhíonn sa phlé le cursaí pobal agus cursaí deonach. At a public meeting in Galway last night, we were asked to draw to people's attention that everything is not hunky-dory in Galway, even though it has a great reputation for festivals, celebrations, the arts and culture. A budget submission entitled "Protect Communities-Protect Galway", about the community and voluntary sector sinking under the cuts, outlines the difficulties the sector faces. I would welcome any Senator reading the submission in the run-up to the budget. Representatives of all areas, from the disability sector, older people and the LGBT community, said they are under immense pressure and want Senators and the Government to take on board their concerns.

We might be able to do so by examining the regime of oil and gas licensing in the State following the wonderful find of oil off the coast of Ireland. On a number of occasions, I have called for the Minister to come to the Chamber and give us his thoughts on the proposal by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources on the licensing regime. By international standards, the regime is very favourable to oil companies. Although the Minister told us finding oil off the coast of Ireland was like looking for a needle in a haystack, we have had two big finds over the past couple of months. It is more important than ever that we discuss the licensing regime and see what tax revenues we can get from the resources and how the moneys can be used to offset problems in the State.