Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We must be very clear. That so many of us are here on a Thursday evening that we cannot even get full slots in which to speak and that everybody from every party is speaking out is a testament particularly of the people power in the regions affected, but also environmentalists throughout the country who have made fracking so politically unpopular that nobody in the House can say he or she would give any credence to the practice. That represents a shift because for years we have been raising questions on this issue and have been told the Government is worried and that we should let it do the research. We have before us tonight a Bill that says "No", we want to ban fracking and we do not need to do research. The research already initiated, as other Deputies have said, is highly discredited, its terms of reference were inadequate and all the peer reviewed studies conducted subsequent to the establishment of those terms of reference firmly show this practice to be one that right-thinking citizens do not want.

The Government withdrew the amendments it had planned to table, but what the Minister said was very like what was in the amendments. If we are serious about banning fracking, there is no need for these studies to go on and there is no need to wait. We must see it through. The key point of tonight for the environment and for future generations is that the House is united, games are not being played here, this is an historic day and we want to take fracking off the island. However, we should not be in any way complacent because international trade agreements such as CETA and so on, given that licences have been issued, potentially put this State in a precarious position. I very much welcome the Bill and I am delighted that it is moving forward. It is a good day, but I issue my last words as a warning. I would not put away the placards quite yet if I were the communities.

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