Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy McLoughlin on bringing the Bill to the House. Sinn Féin had a similar Bill on fracking, as had many others here. It is one of the unique occasions when there is cross-party support to try to get it over the line. It is to be commended.

The Bill is a victory for the people in the Gallery and those watching proceedings all over the country more so than for anyone else. While Deputy Tony McLoughlin deserves great credit for it, the pressure that has been built up over the past number of years by people the length and breadth of the country, many in my constituency and in County Clare and other areas, has shone a very bright light on the dangers involved in the process of hydraulic fracturing. When the Bill began its life, it was about geology and about ensuring that gas would not be extracted from coal seams, shale rock and tight sands. It did not go into the process we call fracturing. At the time we understood it was the best way of dealing with it to ensure, as Deputy Boyd Barrett said, no new process could be introduced which would be a slightly different from fracturing, for example squeezing the rock or finding some other way to do it which would have the same effect and the same environmental dangers. It has developed a little bit differently and is now not a Bill to do that but an amendment to the Petroleum and Other Minerals Development Act 1960. However, it does what we need it to do. While I fully accept what Deputy Boyd Barrett is saying, sometimes the perfect can be the enemy of good. If we strive to get this absolutely perfect, we may find ourselves in a situation where we do not achieve what we need to.

I am deputising on behalf of Deputy Brian Stanley this evening, who had tabled amendment No. 4. We will withdraw that amendment. The purpose of the amendment was to address the offshore aspect of fracking. We have been convinced by a number of individuals and groups that the off-shore aspect of it makes it too complex to get the Bill over the line and to be sure we get it done in the lifetime of this Dáil. That is the reason why we feel it is more appropriate to withdraw the amendment and focus on the onshore aspect of it. It has been explained to us by geologists and others that when conventional gas is extracted in wells offshore, there is a process of pressure used that could be described as a type of fracking and that if we try to expand our ban on hydraulic fracturing to offshore, we could, in effect, be banning conventional gas extraction. To do so would put it into a legal tangle where it could be sent to the Attorney General, which would delay the Bill. We do not want to end up in a situation where there is no Dáil and the Bill does not go through. We do not want to see that happen. We propose instead to withdraw our amendment and support the Bill as it stands. When the Bill goes through, we propose an all-party group to develop an alternative amendment to the 1960 Petroleum and Other Minerals Development Act 1960, which would look at fracking offshore to come up with a comprehensive amendment to the 1960 Act to ensure hydraulic fracturing offshore can be banned. We want to ensure we do not complicate the issue now and possibly allow the Bill to fall.

When we come here, we have an awful lot of division; we are always fighting with each other about different things. We are always coming up with different problems but this is one thing, I am delighted to say, we have unanimity on. It is one of the good things we have here. Everyone is together on this and we want to ensure the process of hydraulic fracturing is banned for good. If the industry comes up with some alternative way of doing it in the future, we will have to look at it then.

For now at least, if we can get this Bill over the line, we will make a strong statement both in Ireland and to the world that hydraulic fracturing is a dangerous process which is wrong and should be banned.

Last February, I attended an Inter-Parliamentary Union conference in the United Nations in New York on the oceans of the earth and the dangers presented by various processes, including pollution. The danger posed by gas and oil exploration was one of the major issues discussed. I made the case that the Irish Parliament was putting through legislation proposing a ban on hydraulic fracturing, that we were leading the way in this area and that the rest of the world should follow. If we have an opportunity to lead, we should not stop by banning only onshore fracking. We should extend the ban to offshore hydraulic fracturing. If the fracking process changes or develops in some way and the legislation needs to be strengthened, we must ensure that any extraction of gas or oil from tight sands, coal seams or shale rock is banned and prohibited for good.

I suggest to the proposers of the other amendments that they rethink their position. My argument is that the perfect must not become the enemy of the good. Once we get this Bill over the line, we should all work together. While I understand that time is of the essence, we have the energy and commitment of everyone in the Chamber to ban hydraulic fracturing offshore. I commend the Bill again.

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