The Irish Times view on reopening Ireland’s oil and gas fields: not the answer
James Geoghegan, an agricultural contractor from Westmeath and one of the leaders of the fuel price protests, said in a number of media interviews that one of the conditions for ending the blockades included a reversal by the Government of legislation introduced in 2021 that banned new offshore licences for oil and gas exploration.Geoghegan said that the most effective way of avoiding future energy shocks was through the development of the “ocean of oil” that lies off Ireland’s coastline. His demand was repeated by other protesters.The package unveiled by the Government last Sunday ended the blockades for now. But if prices remain elevated, the fuel protests could develop into a more coherent movement.The idea that Ireland can achieve energy security through domestic oil and gas does not stand up to scrutiny.READ MOREA Kerryman in California: My first boss told me ‘nothing changes here’ – turns out he was rightThe nationalist tobacco shop that hosted James Joyce and Arthur GriffithLeo Cullen must have heard the tut-tutting on his team to face UlsterWhy are prices so low in Spain when Ireland has the most expensive electricity in Europe? The fiction that there are billions of euros of offshore fossil fuels that the Government could easily develop has been trotted out with alarming frequency over the past few decades.There was a frenzy among investors in the early 1980s, driven by claims that Ireland’s oil and gas reserves were on a scale similar to those in the UK’s North Sea Basin. Over the intervening decades, hundreds of millions of euros have been spent on exploration. The underwhelming reality is that in that time only three gas fields and no oil fields have been developed. There have been oil discoveries, such as the one at Barryroe off the coast of Cork, but they are in challenging terrain and not commercially viable. Moreover, Ireland, like every other country, must tackle the devastating effects of climate change. That is why then minister for energy Eamon Ryan correctly introduced the 2021 ban on new exploration licences.The one energy resource that this country has in abundance is wind. It has the potential to make Ireland a net exporter of energy, and if fully developed could effectively eliminate carbon emissions. That is why it must remain at the centre of all attempts to achieve energy security.
