Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is increasingly appearing to be a champion of hydraulic fracturing. I would not pin all my hopes on the economics of fracking because evidence is coming forward that three times the number of planned fracking wells is needed in order to hit the projected targets. That would have an impact on the cost of shale gas. Even more importantly, we of all nations should have learned that we cannot fully trust regulators and systems of regulation. When the Taoiseach was in Pennsylvania, he spoke in glowing terms about the shale gas effort there. I presume in Pennsylvania that there is the US equivalent of the EPA which undertook reports and so on before the work was done. The Department of Environmental Protection in Pennsylvania wrote a letter to many people in this regard.

The letter stated that there is a physical danger of fire or explosion due to the migration of natural gas into water wells or through soils into dwellings where it could be ignited by sources that are present in most homes and buildings. It also stated clearly that the departmental investigation indicates that gas well drilling has impacted the water supply.

The worrying thing is that it was not the regulators who picked up on these problems but people who insisted that the Department of Environmental Protection carry out the tests. They were lucky enough to have baseline information, otherwise they would not have a leg on which to stand. It was up to the people. The companies will not notify and the regulators are not doing what regulators should do and we of all people know the consequences of that.

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