Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

This is an historic day. It is an historic day for the environmental movement because it is a real victory. I thank Deputy Tony McLoughlin for helping to make it happen and everyone else here who spoke in support of what will be a very radical, important change that will affect our country now and into the future. It is a victory for the local people in Leitrim in particular. I do not want to draw anyone out but I refer to the likes of Johnny Gogan from Clare and Cinema North West. The film "Gasland" was mentioned earlier. It is about such people just getting up and doing things, talking to neighbours, working out what is possible and having the cop-on to realise that the way to win this is to go positive and to recognise that if we love Leitrim, we do not want to tear it apart with the plan of fracking.

Yesterday, a very good and very interesting presentation was given by the organisation, Sustainable Water Action Network, SWAN, which set out the evidence. It set out the real, significant problems, pollution problems that come with fracking for gas, the clear understanding that leaks occur, the difficulty of the geological systems, the casing not always working and the fact there is a percentage of leaks and polluted water which cannot be dealt with. It also set out that even our own European legislation and other environmental directives are not sufficiently in place to protect us against the pollution that would and could occur. For all these reasons and for those we mentioned here, the study that has been carried out does not have credibility and would not be accepted. It may be published in the coming weeks, but I do not think it will influence one way or other the legislative process we are starting today.

The Ceann Comhairle was right to set out the process which we will now have to take in committee. I am a member of the Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment and I look forward to working with all Deputies to see if we can add legal certainty and get the legislation absolutely right. However, fundamentally the purpose of a Second Stage debate is to set out the overall intent, and the overall intent of this House could not be clearer. We want to ban fracking and we will do so. It is an historic moment for the environmental movement because it is one of the first big wins on the issue of climate. We know that if what we said earlier about signing the Paris climate treaty, which we must do, is true, it calls on us to keep four fifths at least of fossil fuels in the ground, starting with shale gas. The Bill we are agreeing is a small but important part of that.

It is of international significance. My Green Party colleagues in the UK are trying to get a similar Bill introduced in the Houses of Parliament and will look to this Bill and cite it. The Keep It in the Ground community in North Dakota will look to the messages from Eagle's Rock in Leitrim going out to Standing Rock in North America, and they will take hope from this decision. When it comes to the committee hearing, we have plenty of examples and evidence from other areas which have introduced similar bans in New York, California, Germany and Spain. We are not short of analysis nor of reasons for which to make this fundamental decision. We will not frack for gas. We will not even start to do so.

Other organisations such as the Good Energies Alliance in Leitrim realise that there is another side to this coin. Not only are we ridding ourselves of the potential pollution that comes from fracking, it also poses the question of how we will create jobs, employment and wealth in the likes of Leitrim. We must do that. Today should be an historic day when we start on that direction, using the natural resources, which are rich in Leitrim, in farming and forestry and in capturing wind, solar, biomass, hydro and other power supplies. That is the real implication of this vote. As well as our not polluting, we must start turning to the better alternatives that exist. I have confidence that the same people who led the campaign to get this Bill through will take a really positive role in stepping forward in loving a prosperous, clean and secure Leitrim and Clare and every other place that has been threatened by this fracking potential.

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