Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

6 o’clock

I welcome the opportunity to speak in support of Deputy McLoughlin’s Bill, which will lead to a ban on fracking in Ireland. He has been to the fore in this debate and I want to congratulate him on drawing up the Bill and securing the support of the Government to ensure its successful passage through the Houses of the Oireachtas.

The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Denis Naughten, said recently that climate change is the defining challenge of our time and it is during our time that the obligation exists for us as a nation to take action. Fracking is a highly carbon-intensive industry and obligations to reduce our carbon emissions have been placed upon us by national, EU and global agreements. We must remember that Deputy McLoughlin’s Bill is introduced in the context of the Paris Agreement 2016, which commits us to keeping global warming to below 2° Celsius. In order to do the latter, it is estimated that 60% to 80 % of known reserves of fossil fuels must remain in the ground. Fracking and the extraction of fossil fuels from Ireland have no place in a low-carbon energy future and it would be irresponsible if we were to try to open this industry now.

This Bill does not seek to simply ban the process of fracking, rather it seeks to ban the act of taking oil and gas out of the ground where usually fracking would take place. This is because of the ever-changing and ever-advancing nature of the technologies used in the fracking industry and the recognition that legislation relating to specific technologies would likely be out of date in very short time.

In recent weeks, I have received a large number of representations from constituents right across County Clare. Significant local and global impacts are associated with the fracking industry. Fracking threatens public health, the environment, tourism and farming and contributes to climate change. County Clare depends very much on the agriculture and tourism industries. If fracking is not banned, there would be a detrimental impact on these industries in County Clare and other counties such that in which Deputy McLoughlin lives, Sligo, and also Roscommon and Leitrim.

Fracking is damaging to people, communities, the land and groundwater. There has been a surge in the exploitation of shale gas by fracking. This is due, in part, to the fact that fracking, in combination with advanced directional drilling techniques, has made it economically possible to extract oil and gas from unconventional sources, such as shale, tight formations and coal beds. However, this method poses risks. According to a report published by David Healy in 2012, concerns raised in the media and, to a much lesser extent, in scientific literature relate to potential environmental impacts resulting from fracking. These include earthquakes - for example, there was a mini earthquake in the UK near Blackpool as a direct result of fracking - the pollution of groundwater and, subsequently, the potential pollution of drinking water; emissions of greenhouse gases, including methane, and leakage of contaminated drilling waste fluid from storage ponds. The Sustainable Water Network, SWAN, is an umbrella network of 26 of Ireland’s leading environmental NGOs. On 25 October it published a report which found that fracking for shale gas is incompatible with good water quality and recommended its prohibition in Ireland.

I compliment Deputy McLoughlin on introducing the Bill. I congratulate him on securing the support of Government and look forward to cross-party support for the Bill as it passes through the Houses of the Oireachtas.

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