Billions lost in the great oil and gas giveaway

EVERY day in this country there is talk from the main opposition parties of the need to get Fianna Fáil out of office.

Roll on the next general election, they say. Just before we get to that point, can the Fine Gael and Labour parties please pause for one moment? Neither party seems to be suggesting any renegotiation of the contracts to the companies licensed for the extraction of Ireland’s natural resources.

This is not a minor matter. The Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has said repeatedly that the combined value of oil and gas in the Rockall and Porcupine basins (excluding Corrib, incidentally) is the equivalent of 10 billion barrels of oil, or about €610bn today, if we take a barrel as worth $80. Our current take from this is zero. Would €61bn (a 10% take) coming into the exchequer in the next decade or two not make a dent in our current incredible deficit?