Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 23 June 2015
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: Discussion
1:30 pm
Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source
I am sorry, I missed a little of the debate because I had to leave for a vote. The Minister may have covered part of this question already. It relates to energy. Will there be an effort to get a level playing field in energy? In Britain today I understand they have given permission for shale fracking in Lancashire. This may be the start of fracking to obtain energy from under the ground. In the United States this has changed the source and cost of energy dramatically. Some ten or 15 years ago everything was imported from the Middle East. Now, they are able to develop much of their own energy. Is there a possibility that this could be regarded as unfair competition? Will there be any effort to try to balance that between the two?
The second question relates to the next stage. Does South America come into it at some point? Will we find ourselves in a situation where Chile, Argentina and Brazil are also going to be involved in an added way? Has that even been thought of at this stage?
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