Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will give a commitment that no licences for on-shore unconventional shale gas exploration will be granted at least until the new Environmental Protection Agency report on the Environmental Impacts of Unconventional Gas Exploration and Extraction is completed and considered. [5059/13]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced the terms of reference for the more extensive second stage of its research into the use of hydraulic fracturing, the final results of which are expected in early 2015. As I have confirmed to the House on a number of previous occasions, no decision will be made on any proposal for the use of hydraulic fracturing in exploration drilling in Ireland until there has been time to consider the outcome of this further EPA research.