asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce whether he will give further details as to the exact areas in which it is proposed to carry out mineral exploration under the licences which he stated have been recently applied for seeking exploration facilities in various counties.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Mineral Exploration.
14.
It is not practicable at an early stage of an application for a prospecting licence to give useful details of the area involved. Areas applied for often overlap or include alternative areas which are sought only in the event of preferred areas being unavailable. Applications have to be reconciled, adjusted to townland boundaries or other indentifiable features and the revised areas then agreed with the applicants. Only when this stage has been reached is it useful to publish details of the areas. So far, out of 103 approved applications, notice of intention to grant prospecting licences has been published in the case of 53 applications, covering areas spread over Counties Clare, Cork, Galway, Kildare, Kilkenny, Leitrim, Limerick, Meath, Offaly and Sligo.
The 53 areas in question cover over 1,100 townlands and obviously it would not be practicable to list them all here. However, if the Deputy or any other interested person so desires he can obtain the details from my Department.
Can the Minister say when he will be in a position to give me the details I require, particularly in relation to my constituency in Tipperary-Waterford?
If the Deputy addresses his request to the Minister for Industry and Commerce in cases where licences have been published, in other words, where the owners have accepted the offer, and they are not published until then, no doubt the Minister will be able to satisfy him.