Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In March of this year, the EPA provided an update report on the programme of research into the potential environmental and human health impacts from unconventional gas exploration and exploitation. This report gave an account of the structure and scope of the research programme and provided details of funding and the constituent membership of the steering group established to oversee the procurement process to engage the relevant expertise to carry out the research, together with details of the successful consortium of consultants subsequently appointed.

The update report also identified the five component elements of the comprehensive programme of research, as follows: impacts on surface water, groundwater and related ecosystems; impacts on seismic activity; impacts on air quality; international operational practice and impact mitigation measures; and regulatory regimes for fracking in different countries.

I have received a further update report from the EPA which sets out in detail the specific tasks being undertaken by the consultancy consortium pursuant to each of the component projects, together with the status of these tasks. I am happy to share this detailed update and I have made arrangements to have it published on my Department's website. As I have stated previously, a final report will be published once the research programme has concluded. This final report will reflect the outcomes and recommendations on all elements of the research programme. It is expected that the report will be available in July 2016.

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