Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I do not think it is necessary to go through this process of a research programme and report. I understand Friends of the Earth and others have criticised the process by which it is being done. The evidence is quite strong already with the result that countries, including France, Tunisia and, Bulgaria, have already decided on nationwide bans on fracking. We have evidence from America where fracking is the most developed and where state regulators have documented at least 1,000 instances of water contamination, which would be one of the serious risks here, posing threats to our rivers, streams and ground water and to people's health and livelihoods. Separately but connected there is the question of carbon emissions in that the average fracking well releases an estimated 110 lbs of methane, which obviously contains plenty of carbon. It does not tally with our having any attempt of reaching the EU target in terms of carbon emissions.

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