Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to back up what has been said by most others, including Deputies Dooley, Scanlon, Moynihan, MacSharry. I am full of praise for Deputy McLoughlin, as I told him privately. This is a commendable Bill However, on the basis the Government was preparing an amendment, we must be on standby and watch what is going on. When we think about it, why put in an amendment? It was just to push it down the road and then tackle it again in 12 or 18 months time. Nevertheless, the amendment has been withdrawn, which I acknowledge.

When I was mayor of Roscommon County Council in 2011 and 2012, it took a decision to ban fracking in County Roscommon. One councillor brought forward a motion which was unanimously accepted. This will have a huge effect on the environment and the lives of people in north Roscommon and, of course, in Leitrim and Sligo. There is widespread opposition to fracking in many parts of the world, and countries like France have banned it.

If one looks at a map of Ireland, one will see it is dotted with lakes and rivers. It is an island country. We do not have vast tracts of land. In my estimation, fracking would have detrimental effects on this island. People laugh off the two earthquakes in Blackpool in 2011 which are now linked to fracking but it is a very serious issue. If Britain moves ahead and allows fracking all over that nation, it will live to regret it. We must think of the tourism infrastructure we have built up and are building up in places like Roscommon, Leitrim and Sligo, including Yeats country and the River Shannon. Lough Key Forest Park attracts 80,000 visitors to north Roscommon every year. That would all be decimated by allowing fracking to take place in our nation.

Most of all, it is about the health of our people through the possible contamination of water sources. We are spending much time on this and the EU is saying to us that we must get our water sources right. We must have clean, good water for people but fracking could have a detrimental effect on that.

I want to support the other speakers and Deputy McLoughlin in particular. We need to be constantly aware of what is going on in this arena. If we are not, we will live to regret it. Fracking is bad and we do not need it. We have to go after other sources of energy, and there are other sources of energy out there, but certainly not fracking.

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