Bernard Allen
Question:12 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications if he will make a statement on the contents of the rescue plan devised by the INPC Board.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - INPC Investment Plans.
In response to the recommendations of the Culliton and Moriarty reports the Government decided that the mandatory off-take of petroleum products from Whitegate Refinery at cost recovery prices must be terminated by end of 1996 at the latest.
In order to enable the refinery to compete with market prices on an independent basis after 1996, the board of INPC submitted a plan for commercial operation of the refinery in June. The plan includes investments costing about £26 million to improve the efficiencies of the existing plant. A joint venture proposal which has been received for a major upgrade of the refinery is also being considered. For reasons of commercial confidentiality, further details of these proposals cannot be released at this stage.
(Limerick East): Another confidential document.
I am amazed that the Minister is still playing around with joint venture proposals. We have been hearing about Nigerian, American and Russian deals for many years, but no decisions have been taken. Will the Minister inform us once and for all when a decision will be made so that the Irish refining company at Whitegate can make plans to meet the requirements by 1996? Will the Minister agree that it is in the national interest that the refinery should stay in Irish hands? Will he make the necessary investment to upgrade the refinery?
Officials at the highest level in the Department have given a great deal of consideration to this matter because Whitegate is of strategic importance and decisions affecting it cannot be taken lightly. Two proposals have been made and when those are analysed fully a decision will be taken.
In relation to the existing state of negotiations, will the Minister accept that in regard to Whitegate we have been given promises of action for the past five years from the Minister and his predecessor but that nothing has emerged? The efforts of the Government to achieve a solution have been a total failure. Will he accept that it is now urgent to bring these negotiations to a successful conclusion? Will the Minister touch on the situation at Whiddy Island? The principal proposal obviously relates to the refinery at Whitegate but does the Minister accept that we have a major asset in the oil terminal at Whiddy Island owned by the INPC? Will he give any indication as to the future of the oil terminal in the context of the present discussions?
The Minister, the Government and I would like to see a successful conclusion and Deputies can be assured that we will do our utmost to get it but it will not be easy to get it quickly. Whiddy Island is a very important storage facility and is being considered in the context of any development in Whitegate. If a proposal came forward for an independent development at Whiddy, that would also be considered.
Is the proposal submitted to the INPC last June to dismantle a redundant refinery in the US, transport it across the Atlantic and reassemble it and erect it in Cork? If that is the proposal, what is the Minister's opinion in relation to the State grant-aiding secondhand machinery, in regard to which it had a very difficult history if one considers the record of the IDA and its predecessor in relation to industrial development here? Second-hand machinery was not grant-aided in the past because of the high risk involved.
Deputy Molloy has taken my initial answer out of context. A proposal was submitted by INPC last June for the commercial upgrading of Whitegate. Since then a subsequent proposal has come in to provide a state of the art modern refinery. Both proposals are being considered.
(Limerick East): On the basis of the most recent figures available to him will the Minister say what is the cost of the compulsory off-take in terms of increased price per litre or per gallon, or both?
The increased price will be one penny per litre, which is good value to secure stocks.
Will the Minister accept that time wasting and prolonged agonising over a strategic national interest is symptomatic of the attitude to a number of industries in the Cork harbour area? We are waiting for our rich cousins overseas to bail us out without making any gesture to show confidence in our technology and expertise. Will the Minister now make a decision on this industry and on Irish Steel because they are floundering while Ministers are agonising?
I reject that. There has been no procrastination on my part——
Five years?
The Minister, Deputy Cowen, and I have only been in this Department for a few months.
Wash your hands of it.
Is the Minister disowning the record of the past?
Deputy Molloy would like to say something.
There were no proposals when the Fine Gael Party was in Government.
Rich cousins are not available as far as we are concerned. I would make it clear to Deputy Allen and his Cork colleagues, many of whom have had discussions with the staff in Whitegate, that the staff there are satisfied that over the past year there has been a very positive attitude. Every effort is being made to ensure that Whitegate is upgraded as quickly as possible taking the cost into account.
If the Minister thinks that, he is out of touch.