Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of the amendment which we discussed in some detail last time is to extend the ban on hydraulic fracking proposed by the Bill, which we support, to include offshore. There has been considerable debate and lobbying and so on, about this over the last week and concerns have been expressed that raising this issue would in some way frustrate the passing of the Bill. I wish to restate that we want this Bill to pass. We think it is a historic development that a ban would be imposed and we commend Deputy McLoughlin for getting it to this point. I do not believe there is or should be any doubt that this Bill will pass this morning. However, we see no reason why the arguments that apply to onshore fracking would not apply offshore. The toxic, polluting nature of the chemicals involved in fracking, which we have now accepted potentially pollute our water and impact on human health and would be damaging to the onshore environment, all apply to offshore. We have experience of this in California, in the Gulf, and elsewhere where marine life is being destroyed, where billions of litres of toxic chemicals that cause cancer is being poured into the waters off the United States causing unquantifiable damage to marine ecosystems and potentially to human health, and there are seismic dangers.

Another point made to me recently - it is too late for this debate but I will submit an amendment - is that we should be making a case for this to our counterparts in the North through the North-South Ministerial bodies. This was included in my original Bill on this matter, that it would be policy to call for and campaign for a ban on fracking North of the Border, because if there is fracking in Fermanagh, it will impact on the South.

I will press the Amendment. The ban should extend to the offshore. I fear the Government and Fianna Fáil probably want to leave the door open to offshore fracking and that is why it is important to press it, as the arguments apply both onshore and offshore.

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