Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has a very simple question in front of him. For the benefit of anyone watching these proceedings from outside the House, he receives the question in advance and his civil servants write an answer. The question asked whether the Minister and the Department have carried out, commissioned or consulted any research into the likely climate impact of US energy imported into Ireland. The Minister did not answer that question at all. I can only assume, therefore, that the answer is "No", and that the Minister is planning to import a lot of US LNG fracked gas into Ireland without even considering the climate impact. There is a peer-reviewed paper by Professor Robert Howarth which makes the case very convincingly that it is at least 33% worse than coal. The reason for that is that methane, rather than carbon dioxide, makes up the majority of LNG emissions, and methane is 80 times more damaging to the climate over a 20-year period, which is the crucial timeframe for avoiding catastrophic climate collapse.

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