Oil off the Irish coast is now a definite possibility says Tony O’Reilly Junior, whose company has begun major exploration.

Providence resources is set to begin drilling off Dublin, especially the Dalkey Island field  and O’Reilly, son of the former Heinz CEO says the signs are looking good

"Dalkey Island could be a huge play. It's a $10m (£6.3m) play and suddenly you might find hundreds of millions of barrels.” he told the Daily Telegraph.

He says an oil find would be great news for an embattled Irish economy.

"One of the things I'm trying to get out there is that any success in the energy space could help to alleviate the banking crisis and the Moody's downgrade," he says.

He points out that the  Dunquin field , where ExxonMobil and Eni about to start drilling in the near future could be a huge success.
 Exxon believes there may be  80 trillion cubic feet of gas in the field and experts  say this would make it worth up to $25bn.
"Everyone looks at Dunquin as a big play," O’Reilly  says. "But I think Spanish Point is a huge play.

The programme of drilling will test the veracity of my statements. It's been a story that's a slow burner. The drill bit can make you look a wee bit silly but we've done our homework and got good partners. There's something called the luck of the Irish. Maybe we'll get some of that offshore as well."