Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Minister on his embrace of Gaeilge. He will be an inspiration to many who unfortunately fell between the cracks when it came to learning Irish at second level. I speak on behalf of my colleague, Senator Mulcahy, who is not available to speak on it. I do not know a great deal about this issue but I find it fascinating. The evolution of the teaching of geography has been fascinating. History and geography are intrinsically linked. Knowing what resources we have is important from a planning and environmental perspective. The mapping programme the GSI is involved in is very important for garnering and collating the knowledge, which is very powerful.

Where I come from, County Clare, we are only in our infancy in working out the mass of rock on the Burren.

I remember at school being fascinated by the rock of the Burren. There are caves under the Burren that have never been explored. I am thinking of scholars and, indeed, business engaging with this process, identifying the caves and future tourist attractions. I am thinking also of a recent product called the Doolin cave in which the largest and longest stalagtite in the world to date was found. That has proved to be a very significant tourist attraction in County Clare. We have the Cliffs of Moher which I would describe as a gold plated tourist attraction but in order to keep people, we need silver plated attractions. I consider the Doolin cave to be extremely informative, giving visitors a significant understanding of the myriad of underground caves, the way they link up and the wonderful creations which result.

We have all been contacted about the issue of franking. Perhaps this mapping will give us the knowledge to be able to understand the arguments on both sides. Sometimes it is not easy to understand them because they can be very technical. The challenge the Minister of State and his officials have is to use language that makes this understandable to the ordinary citizen. When one thinks of computers, one thinks tech geeks but computers are now accessible to the vast majority of people because the language has been decoded. I suggest the same is the case with this. There is a challenge in terms of communication. The Minister of State correctly made the point that this information is available free of charge to anybody who wants it but the challenge is to ensure it is in an understandable format and that the language used is clear and understandable to the majority of people who would not necessarily have the expertise those involved, or engaged, in the industry have.

This is a very worthwhile endeavour and the knowledge we will garner from it will equip us going forward in terms of chartering a recovery and ensuring that our natural resources are respected, protected and are used to assist the people. I agree with what my colleague, Senator Daly, said that there must be a social dividend and that it cannot be all about big business. The way we can ensure there is a proper social dividend is by having the knowledge. We should start by developing and gaining the knowledge and then we can talk. Once we have the knowledge, know what is available to us and what our natural resources are, then we can develop licensing and so on. Sometimes we put the cart before the horse and get excited thinking we have a resource. However, when somebody has a licence and the rights, we discover the resource is far bigger and there is not the payback to citizens.

At the moment, a team of researchers is searching where the Spanish Armada went down off the coast of Clare. The project has been going on for a number of months and I was privileged to be at the launch of it in the Spanish Armada Hotel in Spanish Point. What they are doing is very exciting. From a history perspective, they will garner quite an amount of information.

This is an island nation and I recognise what the Minister of State said that it is not just about what is underground but it includes our seas. We all saw what happened last January with the flooding and so on. I am sure we can build up a lot of knowledge about our shorelines with this mapping which might assist us in understanding climatic factors, what could happen in the future and so on.

The Minister might comment on the joined up thinking across the Departments and agencies in this regard. I know there is interaction within the private sector in relation to research and so on but what engagement is taking place between the various Departments and agencies involved in this area?

It saddens me that the marine industry accounts for only 3% or 4% of our GDP. It may be even below 2%. It should be significantly higher. We have an opportunity to create thousands of jobs if we seriously invest in the marine industry in this country. However, that is an issue on which we can have a debate on another day. Rather than exporting our raw material, in terms of fish caught etc., we should be processing it and exporting the finished product thereby creating jobs in this country. This is not happening to the degree possible. As I said, that is perhaps an issue for debate on another day. I thank the Minister for what has been an interesting engagement thus far. This is the type of issue that should be discussed in the Seanad in terms of it having the space and opportunity to dig down into areas of government like this that might not necessarily feature in the other House. When we have those opportunities we should take them.