The Government has approved a £21m survey of the seabed around Ireland. It will be the biggest and most comprehensive study undertaken in Irish waters. It is believed that the survey could pinpoint resources worth about 300 million pounds, including gas, coal and base metals.
The survey follows the discovery, in a survey by the Marine Institute, of 15 major canyons in the Rockall Trough off the Northwest coast and an estimate that resources of gas, coal, sand, gravel and base metals, as well as deepwater species of fish could be in excess of £300m. The Government has approved a joint seabed survey project, which will be supervised by the Departments of the Marine/Natural Resources, Public Enterprise and Finance.
Ireland owns the largest offshore area in Europe, covering 850,000 square kilometres and representing 90 per cent of national territory, but until now Ireland has been the only country in the EU without a proper mapping of the seabed resources.
