Ferris calls for safeguards to protect Irish seabed rights

Martin Ferris TD

The Irish Government has staked a claim at the United Nations over the seabed rights to oil, gas and other minerals covering an area of the Atlantic Ocean over half the size of the 26 Counties.

Work on the claim was started over a decade ago, when the then Rainbow coalition commissioned seismic and other surveys of what is called the Porcupine Abyssal Plain.

The claim for 39,000 square kilometres of seabed was lodged on 25 May at the UN Commission on the Law of the Sea. Other claims could follow but are being held up by territorial disputes with Iceland, the Faroe Islands, France and Spain.

The UN Commission will only consider claims over uncontested seabed territories and is to meet in August to consider the Irish case.

Oil, natural gas, diamonds, gold, coral and sand are among the minerals that could be found.

While the amount of minerals in the Porcupine Plain can only be speculated on, there are other important questions to be asked, such as the environmental impact of exploration and in the context of any discoveries, how will the mineral finds be sensitively developed?

Of equal importance is the question of who will profit from the new discoveries. The experience of the massive finds in the Corrib fields off the coast of Mayo is that the Irish people get absolutely no revenue or royalties from any of the massive gas discoveries made there. In fact, the government will now have to pay for the gas they gave away.

Sinn Féin TD for Kerry North and Marine spokesperson Martin Ferris told An Phoblacht: "We need safeguards to ensure that these mineral rights are not squandered or given away, and any exploration or development adheres to the highest possible environmental standards."