Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Question 236: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the marine environmental monitoring protocols that are required to be implemented by oil exploration companies drilling in Irish waters. [3386/06]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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As a member state of the EU and a signatory to the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic, OSPAR, Ireland expects all operators and licensees to carry out activities in accordance with the directives, decisions and recommendations of both organisations as stipulated for offshore exploration operations and including management of their environmental impacts. Exploration drilling offshore from Ireland is governed by the rules and procedures for offshore petroleum exploration operations. This document sets out the detailed requirements for drilling, and other operations in the Irish offshore. It incorporates, inter alia, the relevant decisions and recommendations of OSPAR.

OSPAR's decisions and recommendations deal with the following: a mandatory control system for the use and reduction of the discharge of offshore chemicals, OSPAR decision 2000/2; the use of organic-phase drilling fluids, OPF, and the discharge of OPF contaminated cuttings, OSPAR decision 2000/3; a harmonised pre-screening scheme for offshore chemicals, OSPAR recommendation 2000/4; and the harmonised offshore chemical notification format, OSPAR recommendation 2000/5, in addition to a permit scheme to use or discharge added chemicals. The rules and procedures also prescribe that drilling applications include an environmental area assessment. My Department is putting in place a process to ensure full compliance by companies with the environmental requirements of the rules and procedures for offshore petroleum exploration operations.