Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----to contribute to the meeting. I am not a member of the committee. As somebody who comes from the north west of Ireland, I have a significant interest in this matter. I visited sites in America where shale gas was extracted. This is not a new industry; it has been going on for the past 20, 25 or 30 years. Some of the sites I attended are environmental disasters, quite honestly. I have talked to people who live close to these sites. Often there is not just one pad; there could be 150 or 200 pads within a small area. This destroys the whole area and the quality of life for the people who live there. I see that CDM Smith has been in business for 70 years and is a big company with 5,000 staff and 140 offices globally. Mr. Hooper says there is no doubt but that there are risks involved in this process. I know he cannot make guarantees in this regard. I come from the north west and represent the constituency of Sligo-Leitrim. We do not have much up there and struggle to survive much of the time, quite honestly, whether it be the farming community or people trying to get employment. However, two things we have are clean water and clean air, and I, as a person elected democratically by the people of that constituency, will never support fracking to be allowed in this country.