Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

These amendments relate to the fact the provisions on mineral development and the changes to the Minerals Development Act 1940 in this Bill, while they specify measures in respect of the prospecting for coal, lignite or oil shale, do not include clear provisions in respect of limiting the prospecting for natural gas. This was an issue that was highlighted as a matter of concern during the course of pre-legislative scrutiny.

This is a really important matter given we cannot afford to continue our extraction of fossil fuels of any kind. The decision made about gas as part of the EU taxonomy was the wrong one. Gas is a fossil fuel. It is not in any way, shape or form sustainable, except for green hydrogen. Natural gas certainly is not a green fuel or a renewable resource. Natural gas is ultimately part of an extraction model. We have been told by the UN and others we simply cannot afford to extract any further fossil fuels. Accordingly, some of these amendments relate to natural gas and it being named in this regard. There may be other legislation that touches on it but given the spirit of these measures on coal and lignite, I wanted to have it named in this section of the Bill.

The other amendments relate more directly because the Minerals Development Act is at issue. They very explicitly relate to precious minerals and precious metals. My amendments in those respects look to insert "precious metals" into a number of provisions here. I propose to put in the phrase, "precious metals", because fundamentally we are at a point in resource management where we need to be looking to the absolute best use of the finite resources we have on this planet. One of the things that fuels the fact we have those kinds of waste and disposal we heard about in some of those earlier amendments, including a disposability of electronic goods, is the idea we can constantly access more. One of the most important measures we can take to ensure we move away from the dumping of electronic and other goods is if the source, and indeed the only source, for the accessing of new precious metals and the expansion and use of those is through the reuse and best possible resource management of precious metals. We should be looking at centuries of use for any precious metals that have been extracted, because they last that long. There are vast amounts of precious metals - in fact you can mine more gold from discarded tech than you can from a relative volume of mineral ore. Instead, we have continued with an infinite extraction model. That continued extraction of resources is the one part of the chain that fits with infinite consumption. One of the ways we address it is not just by trying to curtail or encourage different consumption but by cutting off the idea of infinite extraction. Again, it may well be the case that down the line there may be minerals that need to be extracted but right now, when we are not making the proper use of those precious metals we already have in circulation on this planet, we should not be extracting anything further from the ground. We need to get it right on what we are already using before we look elsewhere.

We should bear in mind we have treasure trove measures in Ireland that are really good. The measures recognise that when people dig up torcs and the like, there are certain things that cannot be commercially used but are in fact national property and that they are a national and a public good. Their significance is not one that exists in the commercial realm but one that exists culturally and for us as a society. We need to have a similar perspective about precious metals. The best service for precious metals, both internationally and in Ireland, is for them to be left in the ground and for us to look to strong, dynamic measures for ensuring the reuse and proper recovery of precious metals that have already been extracted.There will not be incentives for that while there is the opportunity instead to have a constant chain of extraction. I am deeply concerned as are the Communities Against the Injustice of Mining which I already mentioned, but there are many other individuals across Ireland who are concerned. I have spoken about the international piece in this regard because it relates to the territory of Ireland, including both our land territory and our waters, but I am going to speak to mining within Ireland.

There is an all-Ireland cross-Border network of groups and individuals who have been very active on issues such as mining, prospecting for minerals, fracking and other forms of extractive-ism. They called for the amendments to the Circular Economy, Waste Management (Amendment) and Minerals Development (Amendment) Bill because they recognise that primacy should be given to alternative economic activities that are based on the sustainable use and recovery of renewable resources such as recycling, recovery of precious metals and that the Minister should not be allowing for continued prospecting or extraction until we have every measure in place for precious metals. There are other amendments earlier in this Bill to try to give stronger effect to legislation in respect of precious metals. Until we have used our full legislative strength to address the issue of the use of these metals, we should not be looking to new mining. However, in opposition to that what we have actually seen is an expansion in the request for mining.

The Natura strategic environmental assessment statements for mineral exploration and mining which the Government has produced repeats claim that minerals have a critical role in respect of ambitions on the climate action plan and the transition to an effective circular economy. However, there have not been measures that look to recycling, reuse, recovery and repair as being the alternative activities to mining in that regard. Again, I am going to push this on to areas such as gold mining in the north west, where we have seen very little gold in industry or for products, yet we are seeing it mainly extracted as an area for the storage of wealth. It is an extreme area in that respect and is regarded by some as a way of storing and hoarding wealth. We know that there are large amounts of bank vaults which are brimming with gold and much of the use of gold is in respect of the trade in it as a speculative commodity.

The mining industries here in Ireland, and indeed internationally, are infamous in respect of their pollution of water courses. The biodiversity and extinction crisis which we face in parallel with our climate crisis do not allow for the despoliation of new areas and in the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, and environmental reports Ireland has been found to have watercourses that are very degraded and in very poor condition.

The key argument around giving permission for new extractive line products in this discussion is where I want to touch on the idea of electric cars and the use of those minerals. We do not have caveats and legislation around restricting how precious minerals and metals are being used. Not only do we not have measures on their recovery, responsible management, their recycling, production, life cycles and the goods that contain them, but we also do not have measures which say that precious metals must only be used in measures that further us in either the circular economy or indeed the transition that we need in areas such as electricity. Having a continued extractive model in respect of mining, when we have taken none of the necessary legislative steps around how metals are used, is again not acceptable.

We know that there have been submissions, and in fact I have put in one or two of them, on the plethora of measures on exploration licences and the prospecting potential, which are of course a step for prospecting licences for mining in the country. There is a large number of concessions for mineral exploration in the Republic and in Northern Ireland.

It should also be noted that the continued collection of data by Geological Survey Ireland on land for offshore mineral resources relates to what we are talking about in the paper potential of prospecting licences. These, in themselves, trade and change hands as commodities. They come each time with new measures and geological surveys and this surveying activity in itself has biodiversity implications. This is therefore a commodities market in precious mineral prospects which is having a direct impact again.

The creation of alternative energy has been mentioned again but as I mentioned, we do not have measures which limit the use of minerals in that regard. Again, we are looking largely at the licences for exploration or prospecting that are being granted. They are being given to commercial actors but that is no guarantee as to how or whatever they may mine or extract or how it may be used.

I mentioned the idea of the national good of the gold that we find from past millennia and that it be taken out of the commercial space. Similarly, I put it to the Minister of State that in fact our precious metals here in Ireland should be managed as a national resource, not through commercial companies or through the licensing or the partnership with commercial companies, but through full national ownership of the precious metals that are in our State, with the recognition that in the current climate, economy and situation with legislation and provisions for the use of precious metals, the best national use of that national resource is to keep it in the ground.

That is why I want the same limitation that is given to coal and lignite to be included for precious metals and their extraction prohibited by this Bill.