Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his intentions regarding a foreshore drilling licence applied for by a company (details supplied) concerning an area six kilometres off the Dalkey and Killiney coast, Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39036/12]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his intentions regarding a foreshore drilling licence applied for by a company (details supplied) concerning an area six kilometres off the Dalkey and Killiney coast, Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39037/12]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 55 and 85 together.

The proposal by Providence Resources has been the subject of a public consultation process and referral to prescribed bodies. All submissions received from the public and prescribed bodies, together with the applicant’s responses, have been published on the Department’s website. The proposal has been the subject of an environmental assessment by the scientific and technical advisors on the Marine Licence Vetting Committee (MLVC). Their assessment involved a detailed examination of the application materials, issues raised in submissions received from the public and prescribed bodies, and the applicant’s responses to those issues. The assessment carried out by the MLVC involved, inter alia, a consideration of the potential impacts of the proposal on any European Sites or species that could be affected by the works, sensitive species, other legitimate users in the area, and navigation issues.

I will make a determination on the application in due course taking account of the recommendations of the Marine Licence Vetting Committee and the Marine Planning and Foreshore Section of my Department. Information on my determination will be published on the Department’s website. Without prejudging my eventual determination of the current application, it is important to recognise that, should the project progress to commercial exploitation, it would be the subject of further formal applications for consents from the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, in the first instance, and then An Bord Pleanála under the Planning Acts, and a full lease or licence under the Foreshore Acts, all of which will require an Environmental Impact Assessment, including full public consultation.