Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

If the Minister of State has concerns I do not know why we are going ahead with fracking. It seems to be a case of I have started so I will finish, which makes no sense. Let us be clear about the involvement of Queen's University. At the Oireachtas joint committee last week the EPA admitted that it had misled the House in regard to the major change in the status of the involvement of Queen's University in the process. It promoted Queen's University with the intention of beefing up the supposed independence of the research study. That is a fact. It is on the record. It is undisputed at this stage. Throwing more money at the process at this stage is very irresponsible, in particular when 88% of the studies done since the terms of reference were put in place found that air quality had elevated pollutant emissions and 84% of the original studies on health risks found signs of harm or indications of potential harm to human health and yet the latter is not being considered as part of the research. The biggest problem with fracking is not even being factored into the equation. It is an absolute disgrace that the programme is continuing. If the Minister of State is steering the ship he should just throw the anchor over and not even allow it to sail forward any further.

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