Mr. Matthew Collins:

I am happy to go first. The reasons for maintaining the moratorium are quite simple. There are a number of unresolved issues in the risks that have been identified. They relate to groundwater and air quality. Those risks mean that the frameworks are unresolved at the moment. That is the justification for the Department maintaining the moratorium, particularly in light of the Oireachtas examining a legislative basis for preventing fracking. It seems clear to us that, in the interim, we are satisfied that those risks exist. It is in line with the policy goal of the Oireachtas in terms of the legislation. The Minister has already said that he accepts the Bill. He is supportive. He flagged quite a long time ago his specific concerns about groundwater and air quality. It is important that the research that was carried out flagged that as well.

Having the research is useful because it provides comfort in terms of the direction in which the legislation is going. We have a very clear basis and rationale for what we are doing and the approach we are taking. Rather than allowing this activity to take place and examining it in retrospect, which some jurisdictions have done, we have probably benefited from the fact that the better approach has been to prevent the activity, do the analysis in advance of the activity and to then allow a policy and legislative framework to be developed that addresses that activity.

In terms of the legal soundness of the Bill, I am not a lawyer and I know there are parliamentary draftspersons who are professionals in this area. What I can say is that the intention of the legislation is very clear. It is to achieve a prohibition of fracking. We want to ensure we achieve that through the legislation. Sometimes, legislative drafting can be complex and this is a particularly technical area as well. It will probably be a drafting issue, but I think people on both sides agree on the intent of the Bill and that is what we want to ensure occurs.