Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 March 2019
416. Deputy Catherine Martin asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the details of all town lands in which a prospecting licence for minerals exploration has been granted or renewed between 2011 and February 2019; and the details of all town lands in which a prospecting licence is to be granted or renewed. [10547/19]
View answerIn the case of every public consultation on a Prospecting Licence grant or renewal, the full list of townlands to be encompassed by the Prospecting Licence Area is published in the newspaper advertisement. Details of all the Prospecting Licences are included in the Six Monthly Reports which are submitted to the Oireachtas in accordance with Section 77 of the Minerals Development Act, 1940 and Section 8 of the Minerals Development act, 1979. The current practice is to identify the number of the Prospecting Licence Area relating to each Prospecting Licence Area provided in the Report, and no details are provided in relation to townlands. As these Prospecting Licence areas could in some cases include as many as 50 townlands, and there are over 600 Licences currently in existence, it is not possible for the purposes of this Parliamentary Question to provide a list of all townlands included in all Prospecting Licence Areas licensed since 2011. If, however, the Deputy has any queries on specific Prospecting Licence Areas listed in the relevant Reports, my Department would be happy to follow up on these.
Details of the reports can be found at the Oireachtas Library. Details of all Prospecting Licence Areas can also be found on the map viewer on the Department's website at the link beneath and it is possible to identify townlands as required.
http://spatial.dcenr.gov.ie/ExplorationAndMining/SpatialViewer/index.html
