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

Sinn Féin is making a mistake. In 2016, I introduced a Bill to ban hydraulic fracturing. It was specific about the process. It stated, "...all other practices to extract hydrocarbon from coal seams, shale rock and tight sands in Ireland." Then a Bill came from Deputy McLoughlin, on which I commend him. He is representing his constituency. However, that Bill reflects pressure from Fine Gael for a diluted fracking ban that does not extend to the offshore. We have had nearly a year and a half to debate the offshore and plenty of opportunity to do this, but Fine Gael and, I suspect, Fianna Fáil made a political decision that they did not want a ban to extend to the offshore because their friends in the oil and gas industry would not like it. That is the reason. The Government has been forced into this ban by popular opposition in Leitrim and elsewhere, but it does not want the ban to go too far.

It is important to stress that Fracking Free Clare has been in touch with me to say that we should press our amendments. It is worried about the definition of "fracking" in this Bill because it believes the definition does not cover other fracking-type processes that would have been covered by my Bill.

That is the political game that is going on and we make no apologies for saying that the ban should apply offshore, where the onshore issues of climate change, polluting capacity, the toxic nature of these chemicals and the potential for seismic damage also apply. We must close the door urgently.

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