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

There are a lot of broader issues being discussed here. As I stated at the outset, it is a complex issue. There is no harm in raising the issues and, at a different stage, having these debates.

There is a safety regime that has been agreed to, with a system of fines for companies that are not following the proper implementation of that safety regime. The issue of environmental damage is separate to this legislation. It is merely a fine for failure to ensure that the safety case and safety management system are implemented. As I said earlier, there is a separation here. This is not the section that addresses liability for environmental damage arising from petroleum activities. The fine has no bearing on environmental pollution or any clean-up costs relating to a major petroleum hazard, to which I will refer in a moment. As for the amount of the fine, it is set at €3 million for an instance of non-compliance with a safety case or safety management system. This is considered proportionate and is consistent with the provisions of the existing fines set out in the Petroleum (Exploration and Extraction) Safety Act 2010.

Turning to the question of liability, section 7(9) of the Bill, which transposes Article 7 of the directive, provides that "a petroleum undertaking is financially liable for the prevention and remediation of environmental damage". The Bill does not propose a limit on such liability. More generally, section 22(2) of the Bill provides that in assessing an application for any authorisation, the Minister must consider, among other matters, the ability of the applicant "to meet the costs for the immediate launch and uninterrupted continuation of all measures for effective emergency response and subsequent remediation in the event of a major accident". The Minister must also be satisfied that the applicant for an authorisation has "put in place appropriate insurance, indemnity provision or other financial assurance instruments to cover liabilities potentially deriving from the particular petroleum activity or activities in question".

As the Bill needs to provide guidance with respect to the maximum level of fines that may apply, I do not propose to accept this amendment.