Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this important Bill and compliment Deputy Tony McLoughlin on showing the initiative to bring it before the House. It is well known that the Fianna Fáil Party has opposed hydraulic fracturing for many years. Our approach to the issue was set out in an energy policy paper published in April 2015. For many years, I and many party colleagues at local government level and in the national Parliament have publicly expressed the view that hydraulic fracturing of shale for the purpose of generating gas is not in the best interests of the country and should be subject to a total ban. We take this view for a number of reasons, principally in recognition of the fact that Ireland is a small island which does not have the vast tracts of unused land available to other countries where fracking is a popular method of extracting minerals.

We also have people living in dispersed communities who make a living from farming or tourism and depend on the groundwater resource to live and manage their businesses. It is also needed to allow society to operate in a cohesive manner. Having researched this issue and read a great deal about fracking, the practice has the potential to render vast tracts of land completely unusable and uninhabitable. The places being spoken of as locations for fracking, for example, parts of counties Leitrim and Clare, are very picturesque and beautiful and generate a great deal of tourism activity. It is not only the case, therefore, that these regions have farming enterprises and people living in them who depend on the groundwater resource.

Without much scientific research, it becomes clear that fracking as a methodology of extracting gas is not compatible with this country, including the way in which people live, where they live and the enjoyment generated from our communities. A ban on fracking seems to be the most obvious thing on earth.

I am disappointed by the approach the Government has taken to Deputy Tony McLoughlin's Bill. I was taken aback when I received notification from Deputy Eamon Scanlon and my party's research office that an amendment to the Bill was being proposed that would function, in a classic sense, as a mechanism for filibuster. We speak of new politics and the need to recognise the role of backbench Deputies and their capacity to introduce legislation. We changed the way in which Private Members' business was done because heretofore when a Deputy introduced a Bill, the Government would indicate a willingness to accept it before allowing it to remain on Second Stage in perpetuity. This structure was changed to provide that Private Members' Bills had to be addressed within a certain period of time. Yesterday, the Government attempted to delay the reading of the Bill until some time next year to allow a series of reports to be completed. We discussed what the Environmental Protection Agency is doing and previous speakers from my party raised serious questions about the credibility of the company that has been commissioned to carry out work in this area. It does not speak to an independent process that the company which will effectively decide whether we go down the hydraulic fracturing route and whether fracking is a good method already supports fracking elsewhere.

The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Denis Naughten, recognised the impact fracking would have on County Roscommon and so forth. However, he also indicated we must take a scientific approach and await the report before deciding what we will do. I want the Bill to be passed and my party will assist Deputy McLoughlin in every way possible in that regard. If we want to improve the legislation or make it more appropriate to meet the needs of the entire community, let us do so. In line with commitments that all Deputies have given at local authority and national level, it is appropriate and right, however, that we bring this process to an end.

The issue is not only the damage hydraulic fracturing will do to the environment. Earlier, the House discussed a motion on signing up to the principles agreed at the COP21 summit in Paris. We know Ireland will not meet its commitments in respect of 2020 and we also know what we will have to do by 2030, 2050 and beyond. We must make a very clear statement that we want to phase out the use of carbon as a method of generating energy. For as long as there are cheaper methodologies for extracting oil and gas from the earth, the carbon industry will continue. We must decide to phase out oil, even if we continue to extract gas and oil from existing operations. We must stop searching for more oil and gas and focus instead on alternative energies because of the impact carbon emissions are having on the environment. We all recognise the impact that diesel is having on the lives of many people and the number of deaths attributable to the diesel fumes people inhale. At issue here is not only the impact of fracking on groundwater or the capacity of people to live in a particular area, but also the impact of continuing to seek new methods of sourcing a resource that has a detrimental impact in terms of warming the earth's atmosphere. This too needs to be taken into account and should be our guiding principle from now on.

We have to look continuously at alternatives to the use of carbon for transport, heat and energy generation. We are working towards those targets. It would fly in the face of all of that if we were to say that if this is okay scientifically, and if someone could come up with another methodology of ensuring it would not damage the groundwater, it could all be done out of sight of everybody. If all of that can be resolved, we still should not be doing it because of the impact it has on the warming of the earth's atmosphere.

In conclusion, I compliment Deputy McLoughlin for his work in this area. We will be behind him, even if his own guys are not.

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