Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he is satisfied with the current arrangements and supports for the extraction of oil and gas in Ireland's territorial waters; his plans for changes in this policy area in the coming year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4604/13]

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Ireland operates a model where the State provides the opportunity and private industry bears the risk associated with investing in exploration activity. Exploration investment is encouraged through an active and targeted promotion campaign, the holding of regular licensing rounds and by supporting petroleum research projects that deepen knowledge of the petroleum potential of the Irish offshore. Last November, I announced that my Department had designed a major state-of-the-art seismic acquisition programme to provide a regional grid of high quality seismic data over our Atlantic frontier basins. When complete, the survey will add to the understanding of the petroleum potential of our frontier basins and should provide a boost to our efforts to attract a greater share of mobile international exploration investment to Ireland.

Maintaining an appropriate fiscal and broader regulatory regime is also a critical success factor. To that end my Department will continue to work with the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) to ensure the effective development of a new risk assessment based Petroleum Safety Framework in line with best industry practice. In addition my Department is working with the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to streamline the environmental impact assessment of strategic petroleum projects.