Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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157. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the reason that he has allowed and given prospecting licences in a number of counties; the rationale for same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58774/22]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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158. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment when he granted prospecting licences in several counties (details supplied) respectively; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [58775/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 157 and 158 together.The transition to a low carbon economy will require substantially more minerals and metals for use in new wind farms, solar photovoltaic plants, electric vehicles, battery storage, electricity networks, etc. as was confirmed in the International Energy Agency report ‘The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions’. The huge growth in demand for minerals that are required to enable the transition to clean energy technologies necessitates that mining, and also the mineral exploration necessary to identify new mineral resources, will continue to occur for many more decades. Without further mining, the shift from a fossil-fuel based energy system to one powered by clean energy technologies will not be possible.

EU President Ursula von der Leyen in her ‘State of the European Union’ address in September, highlighted that “without secure and sustainable access to necessary raw materials, the EU’s ambition to become the first climate neutral continent is at risk.”

Prospecting Licence (PL) applications are submitted to the Department by mineral exploration companies that wish to evaluate the mineral potential of particular areas. All applications are assessed by the Geoscience Regulation Office in my Department. This assessment includes environmental screening of all proposed exploration activities to ensure that they will not give rise to any significant environmental effects.

The main commodities of exploration interest in Ireland are zinc and lead. However, there is also interest in a number of other commodities including lithium, copper, gold, silver, Platinum Group Elements, Rare Earth Elements. A number of these commodities are defined as critical raw minerals by the EU.

I would like to advise the Deputy that a list of prospecting licences, as granted, is available to view on the most recent six monthly Oireachtas report, which is accessible at www.gov.ie/en/collection/d460d-six-monthly-reports-to-the-oireachtas-on-mineral-exploration-and-mining-in-ireland/.  There are approximately 400 current Prospecting licences granted across Ireland, the oldest of which date back to the early 1970s.  Since the last report was published on 30th June 2022, an additional six licences have been issued in counties Galway, Limerick, Kilkenny and Cork.

Additional licences that have been issued since the last report was published on 30^thJune 2022 are listed below.

Licensed Mineral Abbreviations are listed below for reference:

Base metals (Bm); Barytes (b); Gold, Ores of (g); Silver, Ores of (s); Platinum Group Elements, Ores of (PGE), Rare Earth Elements, Ores of (REE); Beryllium, Ores of (Be); Caesium, Ores of (Cs); Lithium, Ores of (Li); Niobium, Ores of(Nb) and Rubidium, Ores of (Rb)..