Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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56. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to stop issuing further licences for the exploration of petroleum in view of the fact that Dáil Éireann is in the process of legislating to ban such licences under the Petroleum and Other Minerals Development (Amendment) (Climate Emergency Measures) Bill 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37592/18]

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I understand that the Petroleum and Other Minerals Development (Amendment) (Climate Emergency Measures) Bill 2018 is subject to legislative scrutiny by the Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment. Hearings took place in July and I understand that the Joint Committee also received a presentation from the International Energy Agency on the related topic of energy security. I look forward to seeing the output of the Joint Committee's deliberations on the scrutiny of the Bill.

The Bill itself is a legislative proposal at this point in time, and one which the Government does not support. There has been no change in the statutory position regarding oil and gas exploration. Similarly, there has been no change in Government policy on energy exploration, energy security, and the energy transition. Therefore, the existing legal and policy framework for exploration will continue to be implemented.

It is accepted that Ireland will continue to need oil and particularly gas for quite some time. The Bill itself will have no impact on the amount of emissions Ireland creates by burning fossil fuels; rather it will commit the country to source all of its oil and gas from abroad. It does not make sense to ban exploration for Ireland's resources and make Ireland 100% dependent on imports for our fossil fuel needs in the future, when we know that Ireland’s indigenous production at Corrib will decline and Kinsale is approaching its end of life.

Therefore, the Government's approach to tackle emissions from fossil fuels is to focus efforts on energy efficiency and renewable energy which make essential contributions to all of the major objectives of climate and energy policies, including improved competitiveness, security of supply, sustainability, and the transition to a low carbon economy.