An exploration licence is being applied for by Providence Resources
to drill for Oil or Gas
Planned off Dalkey Island in 2Ol2 about 6k from the shore.
Which will affect the whole of Dublin Bay and down the East Coast. See map below

A public meeting was held on the 31st January at    7.30pm
in the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire

The consensus was ( 100% in favour ) was that was that the time frame
to object to the granting of the licence was much too short,
& that a lot more information was required by way of a Public Enquiry.   
See the Irish Times report of the meeting:-
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0126/1224310758814.html

It is up to the individual or organisation, to object to the current application, in totality,
or not, or to request for the Public Hearing. It is too late for that, but one can still make any objection known.

Rumours mentioned that there were around 8000 submissions plus 4112 persons who signed the online petition.
These had to be submitted by Thursday, 2nd February & on the Saturday 4th, The Irish Times published an article that the government minister ruled out the possibility of a Public enquiry.
Question, did he or his department look at any of the submissions on the Friday, or was the denial of a Public Enquiry made, way before hand ?

•  The current concerns are will the seismic testing affect the wildlife in the area. •  The proximity to the shore. •  Will " Ireland Inc " actually benefit, as the Government policy is to give away all the natural recourses in the the hope of a small tax revenue, way in the future. •  Any pollution that reaches the shore, will be the responsibility & cost of  " Ireland Inc " to clean up the mess. •  Norway owns 36% of the resources off the Mayo coast, but " Ireland Inc " owns   0%   ( In the best interest of the country of course ) •  Any new regulation proposed by " Ireland Inc " must include a major share in any natural resource, whether it is on the land or sea, & out to the 200 mile off shore limit. These must include all resources incl, gold, silver, coal, zinc etc.

If the Exploration takes place, including test well drillings, & that a resource is found, the chance of a Public Enquiry may /may not take place, but regardless of the out come, the extraction will take place. ( In the best interest of the country of course )

This was followed up by a RTE Frontline debate. click on :-( Pat Kenny's episode of RTE Frontline on Oil/Gas Drill in Dublin Bay & Fracking in the West ) to see it again