Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Question 53: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the position regarding the promised review on licensing arrangements for oil and gas exploration; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15887/11]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Ireland competes with other countries, both in Europe and much further afield, to attract mobile international exploration investment to Ireland. To that end, it is important that Ireland maintains a licensing regime that appropriately reflects both the risks and rewards of investing in petroleum exploration in the Irish offshore, relative to investing in exploration in other jurisdictions.

A comprehensive review of Ireland fiscal terms was carried out in 2007. This review, which was underpinned by independent economic analysis, considered the appropriateness of Ireland's licensing terms in comparison to other European countries that Ireland competes with for exploration investment. The outcome of that review was the introduction of a profit resource rent tax of between 5% and 15% that will apply in the case of more profitable fields.

While I will keep the licensing terms, both fiscal and non-fiscal, under review in light of relevant future developments, at this point in time I believe that the focus should be on attracting a larger share of mobile international exploration investment to Ireland, to increase the chances of new commercial discoveries being made.