asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state in respect of each prospecting and mining licence respectively granted since 1st January 1959 (1) the name of the licensee (2) the location of the subject matter of the licence and (3) the area covered; and if he will give similar information in respect of any licence not yet granted but in respect of which a firm undertaking to grant a licence has been given, or an advertisement of intention has been published.

As the information requested by the Deputy involves tabular lists, I propose, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, to circulate a statement with the Official Report.

Following is the statement:

1. The principal particulars requested by the Deputy so far as they relate to the period up to 31st December, 1961, may be found in the half-yearly reports which have been laid before the House in accordance with the provisions of Section 77 of the Minerals Development Act, 1940.

2. In the period from 1st January, 1962, to the 19th July, 1962, 28 prospecting licences have actually been issued and particulars of these are on Table A appended.

3. In addition to those licences already issued a decision has been taken to grant prospecting licences as set out on Table B appended and notice of intention to grant these has already been published.

4. Apart from cases included above, no firm undertakings to grant licences have been given. A number of provisional undertakings have been given subject to compliance by the applicants with certain conditions, but I am not free to give details of these at this stage.

5. An undertaking to grant two Petroleum Leases in respect of two areas of 4¾ square miles each in County Meath has been given to Ambassador Irish Oil Ltd. and their associates.

TABLE A: Cases in which prospecting licences have been issued since 1st January, 1962.

TABLE B: Cases in which notices of intention to grant prospecting licences have been published but licences have not yet been issued.