Madam, - Brian Ó Catháin (September 1st), taking issue with Fintan O'Toole's column of August 30th, says that if Ireland had not changed its oil and gas exploration regime in 1992, "we would not have the Corrib gas field today."
The pitiful is that today "we" do not have the Corrib gas field at all. A consortium of international oil companies has it and every other likely prospect, courtesy of the Ray Burke giveaway scheme of 1987, which was imposed contrary to the advice of his departmental officials.
The regulatory change in 1992 that Mr Ó Catháin commends was when the present Taoiseach, as Minister for Finance, reduced tax on oil and gas profits to a peppercorn figure in comparative international terms.
Opportunities for retrospective investment write-offs against tax reduced the tax take even further. It was almost as if the Irish were thankful for the oil companies to take the filthy oil and gas off their hands and dispose of it, no questions asked.
Since then we have had no national outcry against this recklessness with Ireland's patrimony. It is as if the electors expect nothing from Fianna Fáil ministers. We do not hold them to account for disposing of national assets as if they were a shameful burden. We do not insist that oil and gas rights are resources that deserve to be exploited for the maximum public benefit at the most opportune time. We do not expect political or financial management of any vision or foresight.
What was the point in extracting Irish gas or oil if the profit was to flow abroad? What was the rush to deplete the reserve? If the Exchequer was to get next to nothing from it, it should have been left on deposit offshore until a time when its value would rise. A primary schoolchild could have told the Haughey and Reynolds cabinets that international demand for oil and gas would increase, sooner rather than later.
In this game for the big boys of the international commercial world the government seems to have displayed a level of financial acumen that would quickly drive a huckster shop to the wall. - Yours, etc,
HUGO BRADY BROWN, Stratford on Slaney, Co Wicklow.