Dáil debates

Thursday, 27 October 2016

Prohibition of the Exploration and Extraction of Onshore Petroleum Bill 2016: Second Stage [Private Members]

 

6:00 pm

Photo of Mick WallaceMick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too welcome the Bill. We all accept at this stage that the dangers of fracking are beyond dispute. It is a barbaric method of fossil fuel extraction. The impact on the surrounding environment, water table and wildlife is devastating. On top of all this, gas is probably not the clean fuel the Government and energy corporations are spinning it as. Fracking gas is even worse, with a lifecycle emission imprint as bad as that of coal.

No matter the outcome of the Bill, there are external factors at play that may undermine its intent.

7 o’clock

The Government, unfortunately, is wholeheartedly in favour of an imminent provisional application of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, which could lead to huge cost to the State if we introduce legislation to ban fracking to protect our country's people, water and environment and tackle climate change.

It would not be unnatural to be sceptical about the Government's intentions, but even if we leave the glaring issue of its enthusiasm for CETA aside, it is no harm to consider its position on climate change. An obvious start would be the abomination of the sweetheart deal awarded to Shell for the Corrib gas project and the Government's ongoing annual issuing of licences to extraction corporations in the Atlantic margin oil and gas exploration licensing round. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, has been very clear that we must stop drilling if the world is to have even a mild chance of avoiding climate disaster. The Government's lack of concern in this area is pretty worrying.

The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, has quoted debt instruments with 55 different corporations that extract, transport or burn fossil fuels, amounting to a market value of €123 million, and quoted equities with 241 corporations that export, transport or burn fossil fuels, amounting to a market value of €205 million. There are also significant investments in the world's largest tobacco corporations, namely, Philip Morris, Reynolds American and British American, mining corporations, aviation corporations, weapons companies and mercenary armies such as Halliburton, the destruction of palm oil plantations and chemical corporations such as Monsanto. The list is endless. Let us get serious and consistent.

Sadly, the Government also forces the Irish people to subsidise dirty energy through the public service obligation, PSO, levy but refuses, according to some unknown logic, to subsidise commercial or domestic solar energy production, offshore wind farms or domestic wind turbines.

Then there was the publication of the Government's strategic blueprint for investment in transport. The Government clearly sees no place for rail transport in its future transport plans. It goes as far as to argue that "[u]nlike car ownership and use, public transport usage is generally adversely impacted by rising incomes". This is an absurd position backed by zero evidence. Now we hear of plans to do away with the Dublin to Rosslare rail service, which would leave Wexford with 10 km of operational railway line. Does the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport have any idea what it is doing? Does the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport agree with his predecessor's assessment that Wexford people are so affluent that they no longer need trains? Does he really think that the incomes of Wexford people have risen so much during all these years of austerity budgets that they have all gone and bought cars all of a sudden? If we are to care about climate change, address it and honour our responsibilities, will we even start following the recommendations of the European Commission? Will we stop investing in people who are destroying the planet? Will we take this seriously or will we play games with it? That is what we want to know.

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