The proposed sale of the oil storage depot on Whiddy Island may not be as good a deal for Ireland as the Government says, according to an oil industry observer. The depot, along with Whitegate oil refinery, is currently the subject of negotiations between the Government and US oil corporation Tosco.
Mr Padhraig Campbell is SIPTU's spokesman on offshore oil and gas matters. He says that successive governments have participated in the depletion by multinationals of the priceless resources lying beneath the seas around the coast. The latest Government move is part of a well-established tradition, he says.
Last week, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, insisted that if the Tosco deal went ahead it would be a positive deal for the State and a boon to oil-industry workers at the two facilities, in east and west Cork.
Mr Campbell does not agree. He says that Whitegate and Whiddy Island are the two main assets of the Irish National Petroleum Corporation (INPC) and that far from selling them off, the Government should be seeking to consolidate what it has. It could then enter the oil exploration business as a main player, much as Statoil has done in Norway.
"The INPC was established to secure energy supplies for the State. Now, in effect, we're giving it away. Not for the first time have we given away what we should be protecting for future generations of Irish people. It's tantamount to handing over the family jewels," Mr Campbell says.
"The attitude has been that the exploration companies are the experts and we should not only let them get on with it, but we should make it as easy as possible for them to do so. That was the thinking enshrined in the 1992 Finance Act, which was a gift in all but name to the big companies. It gave them a tax regime that was the envy of the oil exploration world on one hand and the butt of their jokes on the other, due to the fact that it was a carte blanche arrangement from their point of view.
"In terms of returns, the Exchequer has benefited very little by the arrangement. Neither have Irish industry or Irish workers - the winners have been the oil exploration giants. Now, a whole new era of oil and gas exploration is about to unfold along the west coast and elsewhere around the Irish coastline, and, as it dawns, we are planning to sell off the INPC. It does not make much sense."
Mr Campbell contends that oil industry insiders have long held the view that the vested interests in the industry have been less than frank with Irish governments on what oil and gas deposits are out there.
With the knowledge gained over many years of surveying Irish waters, and armed with generous licensing arrangements, the industry is now in a position to capitalise on its advantages.
Mr Campbell believes exploration off the west coast will vastly increase over the next decade, but that most of the activity will be serviced by Ayr in Scotland. Ayr is set to become the new Scottish exploration base, taking over from Aberdeen as North Sea reserves begin to dry up.
Mr Campbell, who represents some 900 workers involved in the industry, says his members are increasingly having to look overseas for work.
While that is an important issue, one of even more fundamental importance is that the Republic is not gearing itself up for full participation in the exploitation of its own reserves, he says.
"Rather than being sold off, the Government should create a new role for the INPC. It should enter the exploration stakes with the oil companies on a sharedrisk basis, thereby assuring hands-on control for the first time since exploration began in the 1970s. That's what should be happening because there is huge potential in Irish waters, but we are giving it away too readily.
"Despite this, voices are being raised in some quarters suggesting that we should make it even easier for the oil exploration companies to operate in our waters. This hardly seems credible when what is needed is an urgent review of the terms under which our reserves have been handed over in what I believe is the greatest scandal in modern Irish history."