Letters to the Editor: Barryroe oil and gas field could give Ireland energy security for decades
Providence Resources reported in 2012 that it had struck oil and gas at its Barryroe well off Co Cork. In 2023, the renamed Barryroe Offshore Energy's application for a lease to continue drilling was rejected and the company initiated a wind-down of its operations. File picture: Finbarr O'Rourke
Patrick Davis makes a compelling and timely case for harnessing the oil lying offshore rather than transporting it halfway around the world, citing the recent disastrous fuel tanker collision in the North Sea and possible environmental damage (‘End fuel shipping’ — Letters to the Editor, March 14).
Presumably he is referring to the dormant oil and gas field at Barryroe off the Cork coast. This field has been independently proven to contain 312,000,000 barrels of high-quality oil and 11,326 cubic metres of natural gas which, if developed, within a few years would ensure Ireland’s energy security for decades to come as we transition slowly to renewables.
Significantly, it would replace 100% of vulnerable oil imports and 80% of gas imports costing over $1m every hour. Our own native supply would substantially reduce our carbon footprint and emissions and substantially lower the cost of energy to consumers.
The last government, in 2019, despite being almost totally dependent on imports through subsea pipes, made a grossly irresponsible decision to stop issuing oil and gas exploration off our coast. The result is that today Ireland’s energy security and supply are on a precarious knife edge.
The situation was exacerbated in 2023 by the inexplicable decision by then energy minister Eamon Ryan to refuse a licence for further appraisal work at Barryroe, forcing the company into liquidation, despite many billions having been spent on the project over the previous decade.
Common sense, environmental and economic sense, should guide the current Government, unburdened by dogma and ideology, to urgently address the current critical situation by pragmatically reopening the Barryroe file, in the national interest.
Last year, a report explored how generative artificial intelligence (AI) is helping authoritarians to tip the scales against democracy and accelerate harmful narratives in a wide variety of country contexts, and how civil society organisations — which carry the values and norms of society — are using the same set of tools to push back.
Most hackers know how to cover their tracks. However, the Russian and Chinese elite groups are working at a whole other level.
I found the article by Security Correspondent Cormac O’Keeffe (Russian and Chinese ‘influence networks’ target Ireland in 7,500 social media posts — Irish Examiner, March 18) to be a most compelling read.
The focus of Mr O’Keeffe’s article is on online deceit. He highlights a European intelligence report which states that Russian and Chinese influence networks sent more that 7,500 posts about Ireland on social media in the last year. Mr O’Keeffe writes that Ireland is still without a State structure to counter disinformation and foreign influence.
We also learn that a security source is quoted as saying that, where a lot of disinformation was identifiable before, it appears that we are now in a different space with artificial intelligence, in that it makes it harder and harder to detect, and one is reminded that the origins of same are more and more opaque. Seeing falsehoods everywhere is as damaging as believing too much. Our focus should be on helping people to interpret online information better.
To borrow from the late Henri Poincaré the French mathematician and philosopher who believed that falsehoods are widespread and easily identified, or believing that most content is accurate and hence requires no further thought are two equally convenient solutions. Both could harm our ability to tackle the much thornier reality of mistaken beliefs and misplaced trust online.
Donald Trump’s idea of a ceasefire is to let Russia keep the 20% of Ukraine it occupies plus Crimea, and the US to get access to Ukraine’s valuable minerals. See if I’m wrong.
Trump thinks like Hitler, as a real estate agent. Hitler wanted to take over Europe, and possibly the world. Trump wants to take over Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal. He halted the supply of ammunition and intelligence information to Ukraine, leaving them vulnerable to the Russians.
Nato and Europe need to get their act together and make up any shortfall in weaponry. This needs to be started immediately and all such weaponry should be manufactured in Europe. In modern warfare, you have to be self-reliant for your defensive weaponry.
When covid invaded the country in 2020, adjustments were made in Leaving Cert exam marking to compensate for disruption to the academic year. The intervention has caused unsustainable Leaving Cert grades inflation and mental anguish for students during the past five years.
At long last, there is very good news.
Post-marking adjustment of 2025 Leaving Cert exam scripts is to be reduced from 7.5% to 5.5%, meaning Leaving Cert results this year will be 5.5% above the 2019 results and 2% below last year’s results. Consequently, CAO college points are set to drop as exam results will be lower this year than for the past five years when tens of thousands of students received bumper grades.
Leaving Cert candidates from 2020 to 2024, with the bumper grades, will obviously have a distinct points advantage over the 2025 cohort when competing for college places. However, the vast majority of them should have completed, or are progressing through, their college courses.
Restoring Leaving Cert grades to the 2019 level is long overdue. It will eliminate the regrettable occurrences of applicants with maximum points failing to secure their course preferences because of that awful lottery system known as “random selection”.
It will also help to reduce the dropout rate of first-year students whose inflated grades overestimated their ability to survive in their courses of choice. The aim now is to return to the 2019 marking system based on the candidate’s own performance in the Leaving Cert exam. It might be done in a single step in 2026, but it’s more than likely to be a more cautious, two-step approach.
I reside in Australia and have been trying to campaign to change the way that Australia observes its national day. Instead of it just being a celebration of Australia, I’m proposing that the morning be set aside for reflection and discussion of the mistakes that Australia has made over the years, and the afternoon a celebration of the positive things that Australia has done as a country.
I believe that this could be a model for how all countries observe their national days. All countries have made mistakes as well as had successes. This would be a more nuanced way of observing the national day and would be a form of insurance against repeating past mistakes. With Ireland just having celebrated St Patrick’s Day, I invite the Irish people to consider this idea for how this day is observed.
