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If reports today are to be believed, the Irish oil industry is about to kick off big time. So are we quids in now or what?

We have known for a while that a company called Providence Resources PLC, run by Tony O’Reilly Jnr, have been poking about in the sea off Cork looking for oil. Today, O’Reilly spoke to the BBC about what they found, which is a decent reserve of the liquid gold.

"It's very good news for Providence shareholders and the Irish economy," O'Reilly told Radio 4. "We hope this will not be a single project. From an Irish perspective, here we have no oil industry. This really heralds the beginning of that industry."

The field, 50km off the Cork coast could yield 280 million barrels. At $100 a barrel (the current price) that works out at $28,000,000,000 lying under the sea for Providence to scoop up.

As for what benefit this will be to the dear old Irish tax coffers, we get is 25 per cent of the profits, rising to 40 per cent if volumes are high enough, minus the exploration costs, which are estimated at €500,000,000 for Providence. So we might be in for a windfall, but not anything nearly big enough to get the Troika of our back.

Back to work then. All of you...