Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegates for their presentations. I was very sceptical about this process before we started and have already questioned the legitimacy of going down this road. I am even more sceptical now, having heard the presentations. Dr. Crowe and Mr. Hooper repeatedly say "if ever," "maybe some time," "if we do have to," "should we have to reconsider," "we do not have the evidence and is that not unfortunate," "we are where we are," "we do not have the proper evidence to be able to say definitively" and "Ireland is different." I get a very strong sense, although they do not say it, that they are hedging their bets and that we might some day be able to revisit the question of fracking shale gas in this country. The research is by CDM Smith, a pro-fracking company which is working with a State body tasked with protecting our environment, including our water and population. I see a big compromise in that relationship and get the impression that they sort of regret the decision of the Dáil before Christmas to move to ban fracking in Ireland. I would like them to comment on this in a genuine way as scientists and people who are interested in the industry because I am very concerned that we are going through this process for a different reason. I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I find it extraordinary that we are going through the process of listening to the delegates report on something we have rejected democratically. We should be moving to another stage.

Earlier we heard the legal opinion which advised us of some interesting points connected with language such as how to describe the State and land and whether we would have to link this with amendments to previous Acts dating from the 1960s dealing with petroleum. That is the advice we, as an Oireachtas committee, need to hear to move on. I am suspicious that it will be dragged out and that the industry regrets that a door has not been left open to allow fracking in this country.

I thank and give credit to the people in the Visitors Gallery and their communities for their work in presenting thousands of petitions and going through Governor Cuomo's research in the State of New York and bringing it to Leinster House. Deputy Tony McLoughlin is a local Deputy of the Fine Gael Party and were it not for the rank and file, ordinary decent farmers and citizens who live with the potential danger that their environment will be destroyed, this issue would not have been brought to the floor of the Dáil. The delegates have admitted that it is a danger and that we do not know enough. Why would we want to take it out of the ground in the first place? If we are hurtling towards climate change and bound by the Paris Agreement to seriously reduce our carbon emissions within the next 20 to 30 years, this proposal flies in the face of the idea that the committee even consider the concept of extracting more fossil fuel from the ground. It should be left there to protect the environment and the people living in it. Alternative ways to produce energy should be found.

I hope my suspicions that the industry wants to leave a chink open on the basis that this will not get through or that it could be revisited in the future are utterly and totally misguided and wrong, but I would like to hear that is the case. We need to deal with climate change and protect the environment. Any idea of shale gas becoming part of an industry in this country flies in the face of that need.