Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House and thank him for giving a very comprehensive outline of the legislation that is before us. While we will be supporting this Bill, we intend to propose some amendments to be of assistance. The minerals sector is an important employer that contributes €810 million to the economy, generates €56 million in taxes and employs over 3,000 people. The heads of this Bill were agreed way back in 2006. When five Acts dating from the 1940s to the 1990s are being consolidated, obviously it takes some time to ensure all the relevant sections are covered and all the necessary new provisions are put in place.

We were here previously talking about safety regulations and the requirement for reporting in the oil and gas industry. We had the same debate. I know that a section of this Bill relates to the cleaning up and rehabilitation of sites and the question of whether that responsibility lies with the Environmental Protection Agency or with the local authorities. I suppose it goes back to the same points I was making about the oil and gas industry. We are going to be giving out licences and considering whether bonds are put in place. We will have to reflect on the adequacy of any bonds that are put in place. Companies that establish themselves to extract minerals from mines tend to disappear so that they are not around for the clean-up. Certainly, the taxpayer should never be footing the bill. We will be dealing with that on Committee Stage when we consider who should pay the costs of rehabilitation and assess whether the language and the requirements in the legislation are sufficiently strong to ensure the taxpayer does not have to pay to meet these costs.

I note that some changes are being made regarding the ability to engage in a form of compulsory purchase - I know it is not compulsory purchase per se- for ancillary lands. On Committee Stage, we will tease out the question of whether this ability is expanding. Obviously, we are happy that fracking is not coming into it. We need to learn lessons here from the current issues in the US, where fracking is no longer viable because of the current price of oil. It seems that the taxpayer generally ends up with the bill for cleaning these sites. This applies to hydraulic fracturing as much as it does to the extraction of minerals, gas and oil. Our job is to put in place legislation that is strong enough to ensure future Governments and Ministers for Finance do not have to try to find the funds to meet the clean-up costs of local authorities and the Environmental Protection Agency.

In general, we support this important legislation and look forward to considering it on Committee Stage, when we will table amendments and tease out its minutiae. This Bill is important because it consolidates 50 years of previous legislative jurisdiction in five other enactments. We need to make sure we extract this country's minerals, which are a national asset, in a way that benefits all of society, protects everybody and is done in the common good. We need to ensure that future generations are not affected by the consequences of mining and that any clean-up that is necessary is done at the expense of the company that benefitted and made the profit and not at the cost of the taxpayer.