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THE DEPARTMENT of the Environment has given an oil company a licence to drill a single exploratory oil well off Dalkey in Co Dublin.
The licence, granted by junior environment minister Jan O’Sullivan, has been awarded to Providence Resources which is already drilling for oil off the coast of Co Cork.
The foreshore licence will permit a single exploratory well and is subject to 22 conditions which include measures aimed at environment and ecological protection as well as human health and safety.
Drilling can go ahead once Providence secures the necessary consents from the Department Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.
O’Sullivan said any application to proceed with a full commercial exploration of the oil would require clearance from several bodies including two government departments, the EPA, an Bord Pleanála and the possibility of a public inquiry.
Local TD Richard Boyd-Barrett condemned the licence and said it was now likely to be a matter of routine that a full extraction licence would be awarded, as there had not been any previous example of an extraction licence being refused once an original exploratory licence was granted.
“It is before the granting of the foreshore licence that an environmental assessment impact should have been done,” he said.
“In Norway, one of the world’s biggest oil producers, every application for an exploratory licence is accompanied by a public inquiry, why do we not follow this ‘best practice’?”
Boyd-Barrett voiced concerns that any environmental disaster could have an immediate and dreadful impact on the coastline, and said the location of any oil or gas could see the full industrialisation of one of Ireland’s most beautiful coastlines.
He also criticised the current tax regime under which Providence would be entitled to write off the costs of finding any oil against the tax payable on its sale, and the fact that explorers are under no obligation to sell some of their findings to the Irish state.
The environmental protection group An Taisce also expressed concern, saying it believed the potential threats to Dublin Bay “have not been adequately assessed”.
“Overall, the assessment of the potential impacts of this exploration and drilling licence were not adequately evaluated to ensure the protection of a number of species and habitats,” the group said, saying an environmental impact assessment should have been conducted before any licence was granted.
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It is about time we start cashing in on our oil! The British have done it for ages and now it’s our turn to reap the benefit of our black gold!
There is a reason for this,we won’t benefit from it.they already sold!! Same as our bogs. When it seems too good to be true it usually is and remember this is Ireland.
Plus 1
WE, Aoife…you have a wee portfoilo of shares stashed then??
Offshore, eh..
Richard Boyd I’ve a loudspeaker stapled to my mouth Barrett. Never anything constructive or positive to say about anything. This is great news and should be welcomed.RBB won’t say this as it doesn’t fit with his Communist Ideals and his followers….
Jaysis..I’ve blundered into a shareholders meeting.
similar to Fianna Fail granting Shell a License without consulting the people first. Jan O’Sullivan is gone at the next election.
That was a response to Aoife.
In an ideal world Aoife we would cash in on this oil – but, in case you’ve missed the whole Corrib controversy, back in the 50s Ray Burke sold all our oil/gas rights away. We don’t receive any royalties from our own gas/oil, whatsmore all tax the oil company is charged can be written off – meaning we receive next to nothing – Again we instead have to buy back our own resources on the market at full international price – what this means is that, regardless whether the oil is coming from Ireland or anywhere else in the world, we will be charged the same price for it! I am 100% for utilising our own resources but Ireland is giving them away. Our constitution states that the natural resources belong to the people of Ireland, maybe the government need reminding of that – Time to speak up Ireland – look at our current gains from these natural resources – it’s not like we actually have anything to lose by demanding that we actually benefit from our own resources!!
Poppycock, Poppysmith. Ray Burke couldn’t have sold our oil & gas when he was 12 years old. His daddy wouldn’t have let him.
@ William Grogan he was very advanced for his years :)!! No idea how I came up with that date – think it was 87 the laws were changed – he removed all royalties and reduced the state’s share from 50 – 0 % – no doubt he received a nice brown envelope for his troubles!
Wait now for the Dalkey action groups out protesting because they think they own Dublin Bay .
“They think they own Dublin Bay” Would ya get a grip. Some group needs to put pressure on Providence to keep them in line. If it’s the Dalkey group, fair play to them taking up the challenge.
Fair play to them; if its an awakeing to what other communities from the Niger delta through Shellmullet to Cape Hope in Alaska are putting up with..
..but if its just the usual NIM(Gentrified)BY solidarity of the truffle-trough snout-snots…stick that fork in their collective arse and turn them over..they’re well done.
cop on wild rover,,, they will find oil and will sell it to the cheapeast bidder… like corrib,,,,these are our natural resourses and should not be sold,,, watch this space
“an environmental impact assessment should have been conducted before any licence was granted”
Why do we do everything backwards? An assessment for such a big undertaking before the licence being granted is surely common sense. The tax being charged on any oil produced is very low compared to other oil producing states as well. We’re being sold out by the Government. These oil companies knew what they were doing when they negotiated with us.
Our founding fathers must be turning in their graves.
Negotiated?
Dont be silly. Its the totalitarian dictatorship of the corporatariat we are dealing with. See the wiki revelations on Shell’s ownership of Nigeria’s parliamentarians.
Why do you think Assange is Public Enemy Numero Uno. but shh…pretend you don’t know.
Damien, the last time I looked corporations didn’t have a vote in Irish elections. You’re just a conspiracy nutter.
Yes, William, sorry. I’ll go away now.
Conspiracy died with the Dodo, right, William?
Damien, anyone who writes “totalitarian dictatorship of the corporatariat” is either taking the P1ss or is a fan of Jim Corr. Did man land on the Moon? Do the Jews run the world?
Tellya what William…you show me your theory on who runs the (conspiracy-free) world…and I’ll elaborate on my phrase for your edification.
Deal?
@William. It is not an easy thing to realise but you dont have to go into conspiracy resources to know that corporatocracy is alive and well and lobbyist exist. You only have to scratch the mainstream media. Backhanders exist. It doesn’t mean the end of the world and you dont have to deviate completely off course from your roadmap of how the world works. I dont understand why some inconvenient truths are such a threat to people’s ego’s. Its like “no way are people controlling my life and environment, it couldnt be. RRGGGG” Dont dismiss realities for comfortability. On the same token I wouldn’t listen to Jim Corr either. he would have you believe that you are totally powerless and there is no point even trying.
Damien & Robert. We know how the world is run.
There is no secret cabal behind everything. That was just made up by the same people who claim we didn’t land on the Moon, there are alien bodies in Roswell, the Holocaust didn’t happen, AIDS isn’t caused by the HIV virus and of course MMR causes Autism and Big Pharma is trying to hide the fact. Big Oil has bought up the patents on car engines that run on water, Doctors have a scam going in cancer cures that poison people, and Homeopathy works but because it can’t be patented Big Pharma (again) suppresses evidence it works. Throw in the Incas had spaceships, the President of the US is a lizard, there’s a government conspiracy to get rid of Fluoride waste by putting it in drinking water and poisoning us, The Polio Vaccine is a secret pill to sterilise Muslim women in Nigeria and the CIA blew up the Twin Towers in which there were no Jews because they had been warned. There are thousands of these nonsensical conspiracy theories and the people who support them are bordering on or may mental illnesses. I saw an interview with Jim Corr recently and it was sad. He’s obviously not well. I actually knew a poor soul in Dublin who thought the CIA were trying to poison him. Can I suggest you read some books that challenge this nonsense and you might be able to pull through, e.g. Counterknowledge? Try and get a scientific grasp on reality by reading science periodicals (New Scientist) and that might help as well.
Ta, William
Thats your theory on who does NOT run the world..not quite what I requested.
FYI, I’ve been a regular reader of New Scientist for over forty years(and Scientific American and a few others, not least the writings of the bould Albert himself)and am not prey to conspiracy theories. That said, the scientific method does not stipulate the dismissal of theorising, but rather the recognition that theory and theorising are stepping-stone approximations on the heuristic path to refining scientific information for creating further theory to advance the path towards unachievable absolute truth(if that is problematic, let me know).
Back at the conspiracy, mine referred to the capture of governance by corporate power through lobbyists and bribery and if you look at the history of, say Latin America or Africa(my exampole being Nigeria and Shell, I could equally have referred you to South Africa, a country I lived in for several years under apartheid, and its mining industry, or the Cheyney/Bush neo-con stealth coup funded by Halliburton/Bechtel and the industrial/military complex Eisenhower(hardy a speculating fantasist) warned about back in the late fifties)the examples are glaringly obvious.
Methinks, its yourself is failing in the application of applied objectivity and is jumping to unsustainable conclusions, not least about my inclinations to superstitious scientism and paraoid delusional phantomising.
Damien, you certainly can come up with a seriously pretentious phrase. I thought “the totalitarian dictatorship of the corporatariat” and “our capitalist/landlord tax-exile dictators…and their international puppeters” was a bit much but “but rather the recognition that theory and theorising are stepping-stone approximations on the heuristic path to refining scientific information for creating further theory to advance the path towards unachievable absolute truth” takes the biscuit for BS.
This sentence clearly marks you out as a conspiracy nut, “Why do you think Assange is Public Enemy Numero Uno. but shh…pretend you don’t know”.
To jump from lobbying which is carried out by EVERY vested interest including the trade unions, through the odd bribe to an elected official, to the idea that the world is run, not by elected officials but by corporations is farcical. I don’t have to prove that it isn’t, if you have any grasp of the Scientific Method you have to prove the conspiracy. But of course it’s a secret conspiracy and we’re all fooled by the right wing media. The funny thing is, the right wing claim the media is left wing.
Yes William, and I have as much access to Enda Kenny as Denis O’Brien, and had to CJH as Ben Dunne, and can get on RTE as handy as Dermot Desmond to pontificate about whats wrong with the country even though they are tax-exiles or have creative acountants lobbying to ensure legislation is market-friendly. And the famine was caused by blight, not the export vast quantities of food by Britannia and her landlords.
Are you aware that of the 100 largest economies on the planet more than fifty of them are corporate entities?
You obviously believe Machiavelli wrote his handbook as a work of childrens fiction. I guess the status quo just suits your personal agenda too much for you to want to even question it, so instead of responding to the content of my statements you attempt lapidary abuse.
If you find my response to your popular science pretensions with New Scientist troublesome allow me suggest you don’t ever try and read Carl Popper, you might get a bity bogged in the terminology of science(though, come to think of it, NS regularly uses the terminology I employed).
Keep shifting the goalposts. I suppose you think we got a change of government rather than a change of shirt with the last election.
Damien, not a lot of solid info there, just more waffle. Dermot Desmond is entitled to live wherever he likes, it’s called freedom. Maybe you want a return to Stalinist Russia where you didn’t have that freedom, could get shot in the back of the neck for what we are doing (debating) and certainly couldn’t live wherever you liked. I might add that during the entire Communist reign in Russian and China almost nothing was invented and no progress was made, under than how to kill vast numbers of people. The Communists stole the plans from the “corporate” west for everything from nuclear weapons to computers.
You can pop into your local TDs office on any night he or she is on duty. You are free to write to the papers and also start your own political party. No doubt when you lay out the evidence that Ireland is not run by its elected representatives but Intel, Microsoft and Tesco everyone will vote for you.
The famine occurred in colonial times, not relevant to Ireland today. It was caused by a mixture of overpopulation, overdependence on one crop, the blight and having the country run by imperialists. It wasn’t caused by businesses.
Using unnecessary terminology to impress is the last refuge of someone who knows nothing but can copy & paste.
I’m still waiting for evidence of this New World Order conspiracy that only exists in your and Jim Corr’s imagination. [Read here if anyone needs further info: http://tinyurl.com/8sc66av
A new government agency Irish Oil. Recruit the best experts in this field the world has to offer. Since its a state owned body the tax payer reps the benefit of any major find. There is enough oil of our coast to clear our debts, bring down price at the pumps and bring in.free health care for all. That won’t happen our government Will give it away and make a fraction of what is possible
Its an outrage how We let this continue. We, the Irish taxpayers, are to blame for letting it happen. If we want change, then we must educate ourselves first. In a democratic society, People are incharge, not elected servants-(government).
Have you a Oil rig that we could use ? drilling & refinery facilities & cash to cover the other capital costs, & how do we pay for free health care for all when the oil runs out ?
Do you have any idea if the money it takes to extract oil? You don’t just stick in a pipe and suck it out!
McBab. You do in lala land where these people live.
Why not? Daniel Day-Lewis did, in There will be blood. I saw it with my own eyes.
What’s the taxpayer going to get out of this? Nothing!!
Have we given it away just like our foolish government done with corrib gas field, cork offshore oil etc.etc. ?
90% of profits should be given back to the exchequer….
Money talks folks. It’s always the corporation big dicks will cash in at the end of the day. Look around the world (and at Corrib).
But look on the bright side – President Michael Twee can declare himself a sheikh.
Should be great for Dalkey Village, all those oil rig workers needing their egg sandwiches and cups of tea after a hard day out on the platform.
Hopefullu not too much of a smell from the gas burn off plume.
all the staff are too be choppered in from Dublin Airport, the oil is going to be processed in Scotland. Dalkey will have no benefits from this.
There is one problem: this is giving away our resources to vulture capitalists. Same giveaway as Shell in Mayo.
“Subject to 22 conditions”. Lets see how this Will be enforced. Yet another whitewashed I suspect.
How many jobs has Richard Boyd Barrett ever created in Dunlaoghaire he is opposed to everything. Not that Tony O’Reilly Jr has a good track record.
and how many emigrant salaries do the golden circle-jerkers consume every year??Wake up and smell the burning arse of the coffee-pot.
Its not the RBB barons you need to hang..its the bean robber barons.
Slow learner eh? If there were job openings for concentration camp guards, you’d be complaining that RBB is opposed. Right?
But you said in another comment that all Irish are lazy ppl that won’t work ,,, by you the cash will be wasted on a lazy race of ppl
Yep, our capitalist/landlord tax-exile dictators…and their international puppeters.
We have to cop on to ourselves here. Ray Burke spent time in the can for corrupt practices, so to my mind this means any legislation or agreements he signed on behalf of this country,become null and void. If there’s oil and gas wealth within our territorial waters, then it’s up to the Irish people to decide how we get the best deal possible for it.
Oh this is fantastic news, Dublin Bay gets the risk of an oil spill; while Tony O’Reilly Jnr (lets just call him JR!) gets all the profit.
Just wait for all the idiotic comments from people saying of people who oppose this,”Your blocking progress!”
Progress in this sense always means the right of the rich to further enrich themselves at everyone elses expense!
Progress as in Progressive Democ-rats.
We should bring the oils to shore somewhere around bullock harbour.
Vincent Browns old house has a big garden !..
What’s the fuss? We need revenue, I’d we have oil or gas lets exploit it. The needs of the many outweigh those of the few. We have strict environmental laws in Ireland and the EU – a lot more than in Russia or the US, I’m sure we’ll be able to extract oil and gas reasonably safely. Sadly though I fear a lot of the objectors to this development are opposed to any idea that results in change.
Calm your fears..many of us objectors want more change than you might just like.
Maybe its a differnt set of fears you should trade them in for. Fear of the end of the Golden Circle Jerks is on some of our menus…used to be known as democracy in the old days; before the dictatorship of the the coporatariat hijacked it..
Well said Damien. The days of “light touch” regulation in this cowboy town have to be over.
Unfortuantely not. The law is is for keeping the Pat O’Donnells locked down.
its not us who is exploiting it. its a private company.
Providence Resources are up 2% to €8.52 on this news, share holders on the bulletin boards are happy. I hope Dalkey gushes with oil to drive the SP over the €10 mark where it should be.
This is only an exploratory well though so we won’t know if it is commercial or not until the release of the barrels per day flow tests and porosity data from the geological surveys being undertaken by petro-physicists. Anything more than 200 barrels per day will ensure we have a commercial oil well in Dalkey, who’d have thought !
@Barry I would suggest you read the article again and maybe get a good hand on yourself , if you think that some little protest group from Dalkey will keep Providence on their toes then you are in one big bubble .
Don’t know much about this but I’ve heard/read a lot about how Ireland has sold the rights to our own natural resources.
So is it possible to get those rights back? When was the deal made, and is there a time limit on it? Can we renegociate the deal?
Mick K, no we didn’t. It’s very important not to believe everything you read, especially if there’s no evidence. The department aren’t complete fools. Oil companies have the finance and the expertise. We need them and they need us. I hope it’ll be a very long term and mutually beneficial business relationship.
Really William? You have a lot of faith “The department”. Reading your words I feel like I’m stuck in a time warp back to the worst days of the celtic tiger property bubble. In a few years I am sure you’ll be one of those claiming “but nobody told us anything could go wrong”.
Censored. We’ve been drilling oil wells for a long time now. What do you think will go wrong? Will we release the Cookie Monster? Every human activity carries risk. Even staying in bed.
We’ve been drilling ..
Have we?Tell it to the Ogoni.
Is it as “safe as houses” William?
It has to be at least 6km offshore.
I can only see 21 conditions in the report:
Maybe they’re missing a page.
In these kind of reports they should really have to spell out the worst case scenario RE spillage.
I can’t see the seals being happy about this.
My comment was point at you Aoifa
We should get Governor Romney USA Presidential Candidate … His got a 5 step plan for everything … : )
Some Dalkey etc. links updated : Hopefully of interest to folk : http://bit.ly/hBv5tY
We had oil of the coast of Mayo and we gave it away.
It was never given,there is always a large payment made to a minister or his wife.Our government are bent.
Dale, and your evidence for this amazing accusation is?
have your say