A gas pipeline to service the West and North West had to be built irrespective of where the gas to fill it comes from.

This was stressed by Marian Harkin TD, MEP when she spoke in the Dail on a motion by Independent TDs which deplored the current license terms governing exploration for oil and gas.

She questioned the sincerity of the Government which five years ago, had pledged to bring natural gas service to towns like Sligo and Letterkenny.  Fianna Fail politicians had used a cabinet decision to that effect to garner votes in the last general election but subsequently had continuously backtracked from that commitment, she said.  In relation to natural gas, people in the West were being asked to endure risk with no guaranteed benefit in return, Marian Harkin said.

The Government was engaged in a giveaway of the country’s natural resources of oil and gas with plans to license further areas of the Atlantic on giveaway terms, Marian Harkin said.  While it was obvious that a ‘sweetener’ had to be offered to encourage exploration, the Minister was handing over the entire bowl of sugar, she said.  She pointed out that the Norwegian state held a substantial stake in Statoil with the result that Government tax revenue would be approximately €40 billion from that source in 2005 alone.

That was the level of revenue committed to Ireland’s entire six year National Development Plan and while Ireland might not have the reserves of oil and gas of Norway the Government had an obligation at all times to protect the economic interests of both present and future generations, Marian Harkin said.

The generous license terms offered by the Government could, perhaps, be understood in the context that 20 years ago there was no clear evidence of what lay under the Atlantic seabed.  However, in recent years, the potential was known to be there and there was therefore no reasonable explanation for the continuation of the existing generous terms for multinational energy companies, she said.

In the final analysis it didn’t matter where the gas came from, a pipeline through the West and North West had to be built if there was to be delivery on the Governments commitment to balanced regional development, Marian Harkin TD, MEP said.