Sinn Féin publish Dáil motion calling for radical changes to oil and gas exploration

Text of the Sinn Féin motion which will be debated in the Dáil on Tuesday –

That Dáil Éireann: conscious of the declaration in the Democratic Programme that the Nation’s sovereignty extends not only to all men and women of the Nation, but to all its material possessions, the Nation’s soil and all its resources, all the wealth and all the wealth-producing processes within the Nation, and in view of the vast untapped potential that exists off our shores in oil and gas reserves, estimated by the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources in 2006 to be ten billion barrels oil equivalent, which at current prices amounts to a potential value of around €700 billion; calls for;

· a complete review of licensing and revenue terms and the immediate revoking of the consents given to the Corrib consortium and the license for Lough Allen pending such a review;

· the establishment of a State oil, gas and mineral exploration company that would hold a 51% majority share in all oil and gas finds and would have its own research facility in order to collect full and up to date information on reserves;

· the imposition of a 50% tax on oil and gas profits; and

· a 7.5% royalty; and

that the revenues that would accrue from this would provide towards the resources for long term and sustainable growth in place of the current indenture to the EU and IMF because of the unsustainable bank debt.

Martin Ferris, Gerry Adams, Michael Colreavy, Seán Crowe, Pearse Doherty, Dessie Ellis, Mary Lou McDonald, Sandra McLellan, Padraig Mac Lochlainn, Jonathan O’Brien, Caoimghín O Caolain, Aengus O Snodaigh, Brian Stanley, Peadar Toibín