Stemming the fall-off in exploration activity around the Irish coastline will be among the top energy priorities of the new Government, the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Ahern, told a gathering of energy executives yesterday.

In his first official statement on energy policy, Mr Ahern warned that, if the "significant decline" in exploration off the Irish coast was not given urgent attention, such activity could die out within the next year.

"Unless decisive action is taken, there will be virtually no exploration off Ireland beyond 2003," said Mr Ahern, pointing to the imminent exhaustion of resources within the Government's Petroleum Infrastructure Programme as evidence.

Mr Ahern said a number of obstacles stood in the way of promoting exploration activity, such as a low and uncertain oil price, poor infrastructure, unimpressive historical success levels and a difficult frontier environment.

Nonetheless, he said, the activities of Enterprise Energy Ireland and partners in the Corrib field off the coast of Mayo had shown that such exploration could be fruitful.

He also drew attention to the likelihood of "positive developments" later this year in the Celtic Sea, where Scottish group Ramco Energy is expected to produce natural gas from the Seven Heads field.

After his address, the Minister said his Department was looking at the exploration issue "very closely with industry". In particular, he said consideration would be given to the terms and conditions under which exploration was conducted and the returns that operators might expect to draw from Irish investment.

The potential for opening up new areas of the Irish coastline for exploration is also likely to be examined as the Government seeks to pinpoint why exploration companies are "going to other areas of the world and not coming to offshore Europe".

Mr Ahern identified the development of the sustainable energy sector as a personal priority for his term in office. "Sustainable energy is something that I'm going to pay particular attention to, personally," he said.

"This country is very well suited to sustainable energy, particularly wind and wave energy. There are a lot of proposals around that are very interesting."

The Minister said he hoped to see the Republic standing as a world leader in sustainable or environmentally efficient energy by the end of his term in office.

"There is a need for energy policymakers to be ever mindful of environmental concerns," he said.