Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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202. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources further to Parliamentary Question No. 517 of 19 May 2015 and a previous parliamentary question when the companies involved were informed that no petroleum prospecting licence was required; if moneys for applications for the licence were returned to the companies involved; the date of same; and, given that moneys were received from the companies involved, when he was specifically advised, and by whom, that the licences were not needed. [39913/15]

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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In July 2011, a Departmental submission to the Minister recommended that Petroleum Prospecting Licences be granted to three companies who were the holders of Licensing Options for onshore areas. The then Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte T.D., did not agree to that recommendation and questioned the strategy of issuing Petroleum Prospecting Licences to the holders of onshore Licensing Options without first deciding the wider policy position. In October of that year the former Minister requested the EPA to carry out research into the potential environmental impacts of Unconventional Gas Exploration & Extraction (UGEE); this research is ongoing. While it was communicated orally to the applicant companies that Petroleum Prospecting Licences would not be required having regard to the nature of their work programmes, the application fees were not refunded.