Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Deputy Tony McLoughlin, Councillor Bohan and members of the anti-fracking advocacy groups in Leitrim and elsewhere and commend them for their work on this very important topic.

In response to Senator O'Sullivan's amendment, in the first instance, the wording of the amendment is declaratory. It is unclear what potential impacts subsection (1) may have on sectors wider than the petroleum industry, whereas subsection (2) may infringe on the existing rights of licence holders, potentially giving rise to legal and compensatory implications. However, the key point I want to stress is that Government policy with regard to climate change is laid out in the energy White Paper, which provides for alignment between energy policy, climate action and exploration policy leading to the transition to a low-carbon economy by 2050. There will remain a significant role for natural gas, for example, as a transition fuel in achieving a low-carbon economy. Therefore, I do not propose to accept the amendment.

It is important to note that offshore fracking is an entirely different process which is only irregularly used in conventional drilling and there are none of the environmental concerns associated with onshore fracking that are relevant to the offshore. Deputy McLoughlin's original Bill was the Prohibition of the Exploration and Extraction of Onshore Petroleum Bill 2016. That was taken on board, with the support of the Government, and became a Government amendment to the Petroleum and Other Minerals Development (Prohibition of Onshore Hydraulic Fracturing) Bill 2016. Therefore, the genesis of this has been the onshore aspect. While I accept there is a broader debate, as Senators O'Sullivan, Lombard and Higgins have stated, I do not think today is the day for that. This is a very specific Bill in regard to banning fracking onshore. As I said in the Dáil, other debates can be had on another day. Accepting amendments at this stage which could impact on the spirit of the onshore ban on fracking would not be in the interests of the people who wish to see onshore fracking banned.A good deal of work was done by the committee that scrutinised the Bill and the synthesis report by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, which was a combined report between the North and South. The prohibition of fracturing offshore has not been considered in the same fashion in the context of the EPA-led joint programme or any other programme of research in Ireland or internationally as far as I am aware. Nor has a prohibition of this activity offshore been introduced in any other jurisdiction.

There is a Bill in the Dáil and there will possibly be future Bills relating to the offshore. It is best to leave that area to be dealt with on another day and to have a broader discussion on it. I accept the issues in that regard, even within my Department between climate change on the one hand and natural resources on the other. Natural gas in particular is a transition fuel in terms of a transition to a low carbon economy. Senator Higgins mentioned the LNG terminal at Shannon and there are other issues we have to examine. Moneypoint, which is coal-powered, is one of them. Coal is relative cheap at present. It is a fossil fuel but it is a very important energy generator. It will come to the end of its natural life and decisions will have to be made on what replaces it. Will it be natural gas or renewable gas in terms of the role biomethane will play? There are also the plans for a renewable heat incentive that are being developed and, hopefully will be agreed by Cabinet before Christmas, on which there was consultation earlier in the year. Can that renewable gas be put into the system and reduce our carbon emissions? Also, in regard to carbon sewerage, are there possibilities in the soon to be extinct Kinsale gas field? As it runs out, are there options for carbon storage? Is that a reasonable proposition?

There is a bigger debate than this issue, but today is the opportunity to agree on banning fracking onshore. I ask the Senator not to push her amendment as the Government will not be able to support what it proposes. It will be momentous day if we get this Bill to ban fracking onshore passed. I accept it is a first step in a wider process but that wider debate can be had in this House and elsewhere, and I will be happy to participate in that.