The newly appointed chief executive of Enterprise Oil, Mr Brian O Cathain, has assured the people of Mayo his company wants the west of Ireland to benefit from the Corrib Field gas find made in the Atlantic 50 miles west of the county.
Addressing delegates at the 14th annual Humbert Summer School in Ballina yesterday, Mr O Cathain said he believed the gas could be piped into Mayo before being tapped by other markets.
He estimated the field could supply almost 70 per cent of the total energy needed in the State on a cold day. "This discovery could not have come at a better time. The country is growing dramatically. We need energy, and that gas is raw energy. At the moment we are importing 50 per cent of our gas from the UK, and the UK itself is experiencing growing demands for its supplies," he said.
There were difficulties to overcome, he said, not least Government regulations affecting the energy supply market which ordained that the gas could only be sold to Bord Gais. He added that Enterprise Oil was facing serious technical challenges in delivering the gas as the field was situated 1,000 feet below water, compared with the Kinsale field at 300 feet below.
The Irish diaspora in the US, currently estimated at 44 million people, will probably be shown to have doubled at the end of the next US census, such is the desire among people there to claim Irish descent, an American diplomat has claimed.
Mr Earle Scarlett, deputy chief of mission with the American embassy in Dublin, told the school that the Irish-American relationship was unprecedented and not copied in any other bilateral relationship in the world.
News of Ireland's success in recent years had also spread throughout the US, he said, to the point where "everyone wants to be a part of it".
Not only were Americans seeking investment opportunities in Ireland but a large section was seeking links and opportunities right across the board.
"Nobody can refute that US-Irish interplay is unique and mutually reinforcing, and it is all thanks to the sincere dialogue and co-operation between government states. This is epitomised by the Clinton administration and previous and current governments."
Mr Sean Rowland, executive director of Irish studies at Boston College, in the US, said American interest in Ireland had never been greater than at present. He issued a caution to Irish people not to take this wonderful relationship for granted which provided them with access to every level of society in the United States.