Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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129. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the extent to which commercially viable oil, gas or other minerals have been detected on foot of explorations carried out on an annual basis during the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4812/14]

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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There have been no commercial discoveries of oil or gas within the territory of the State in the last five years. However, Ireland now has the highest number of petroleum exploration authorisations in place since exploration began in our offshore more than four decades ago. With new company entrants in 2013 including large independent oil companies such as Cairn Energy, Kosmos Energy and Woodside Energy, together with existing companies such as Eni, ExxonMobil, Petronas, RPS, and Shell, it is evident that there is significant and growing capacity in the sector. This demonstrates that exploration in the Irish offshore is moving in the right direction.

In a similar manner, while the number of active minerals prospecting licences indicate the buoyant state of mineral exploration in Ireland, no new commercially viable deposits of minerals have been discovered in the last five years although there have been some encouraging results, particularly in Counties Limerick and Clare. However, it is too early to determine whether these results will lead to identification of commercially viable deposits or to estimate the economic benefits that might accrue.