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

This issue is of more than academic interest to me because I live in the area most immediately threatened by fracking. Last week the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications discussed its progress report with representatives of the EPA. I have described CDM Smith as a cheerleader for the fracking industry. My major concern is that it is the lead company for the study. How can any reasonable person expect a report to be truly independent if the lead company producing it is a cheerleader for the fracking industry? It was a bad choice as the lead company. The EPA has indicated that it signed a conflict of interest declaration. I could sign 100 documents, but I would remain implacably opposed to fracking because I know of the damage it will do. Last Friday, when the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Simon Harris, attended the opening of the MacDiarmáda summer school at Seán MacDiarmáda's cottage, outside Kiltyclogher, County Leitrim, he looked out at the beautiful drumlin landscape of hills, valleys and rivers. Imagine that beautiful place covered with fracking pads. Irrespective of the health impacts, we will never be able to restore that environment if it is savaged in the cause of making money for hydraulic fracturers.

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