Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. I question the wisdom of carrying out this study. I have figures from Minister of State Deputy Joe McHugh implying the total cost is €1.75 million, which includes €500,000 from his own Department. This is excessive and it is wastage in view of the country's austerity programme. The money could be put to much better use to address problems such as hospital waiting lists, particularly given the controversial nature of the fracking industry and the questions associated with it. Has Mr. Lynott communicated with Britain, which has topography and geology very similar to ours?

This is a sham exercise, or a bit of a charade, and we have much more important things to be doing. We should have a moratorium on fracking in this country for at least 20 years, during which period we could learn the experience abroad. Ours is but a little island and fracking could have a considerably detrimental effect on us.

It was interesting that Mr. Lynott stated there is nothing in the study regarding the effects on health. I find that hard to justify. In the state of New York, the health department carried out a review in December 2014. In our study, there is an onus on the chief medical officer in the HSE and the Department of Health to become engaged. Health is a priority in addition to protecting the environment.

There is a clear conflict of interest for parties involved in this. The independence of the study must be queried.

The progress report, presented in September, shows that the bulk of the study is being carried out by CDM Smith and Amec Foster Wheeler, both of which are heavily involved in the oil and gas industry. Amec is reviewing regulations, legislation and the writing-up of best practice for fracking. Its client list also includes BP, Shell and ExxonMobil. We are told the research is undergoing internal and external independent review. The internal review is being carried out by the members of the consortium. For example, a task carried out by Amec is reviewed by CDM Smith and vice versa. This clearly is inadequate. The independent external review is being carried out by members of the steering committee. This, again, is inadequate and extremely poor practice.

I cannot fathom how this extensive research was commissioned in the first place. I will make a comparison with the process of acquiring planning permission for a domestic dwelling. Particularly in the past ten years, groundwater testing for percolation in sewage treatment systems has become very detailed. The EPA guidelines are barring a lot of people from setting up a family home in their own areas. I know of numerous people in my county of Kerry who have, more or less, been barred from building a house owing to extensive regulation. The EPA is adopting a very loose procedure in respect of fracking and appears to support that industry. At the same time, there are guidelines for groundwater testing in the case of a domestic house and people are being prohibited from building even on their own land. I find it hard to comprehend.

I advise the EPA to go back and become involved in the health aspect also. We are on a bit of a wild goose chase. I ask the EPA to come out with a very strong statement to the Minister. All it has to do is look across at the United Kingdom and the reports from there. The EPA has also carried out some preliminary investigations which should have found enough evidence to conclude that this not the way to go in this country.