Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is not the intention to ruin any areas. All data that will be collected, that would be part of an environmental impact statement, is assessed by specialist consultants before coming to me for signing off on exploration licences. Deputy Ryan made reference to scholarships. This is an ongoing and longstanding programme and I know the Deputy was a Minister in the Department at the time. The 2017 scholarships which have been accepted onto the relevant MSc degree courses are in geoscience, petroleum engineering and environmental science and are starting in late 2017. We must recognise that there is a wide range of uses for oil and it is not just for running our cars. While over 75% of them are obviously around gasoline or aviation and jet fuel, there is a wide range of other resources that are utilised from oil including the medical device sector, a range of projects from aspirin, glue, trash bags, footballs, umbrellas, bandages, nail polish, pins, balloons and toothpaste.

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