Council votes to ban fracking

CLARE County Council became the first local authority in Ireland to ban fracking through its development plan, at this week’s meeting on Monday.
Emotions ran high as the councillors expressed outright opposition to fracking and opted to go against advice from county manager Tom Coughlan and senior planner Gordon Daly by introducing the ban in the development plan.
Fracking is a hugely controversial means of extracting natural gas from rock. An anti-fracking campaign has been in place in Clare in recent months and dozens of people, including at least two TDs, were in the public gallery for Monday evening’s debate. Indeed, applause from the spectators greeted many of the anti-fracking statements made by councillors.
The council also passed a motion calling on Minister for Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte, to ban fracking at a national level.
Dr Aedin McLoughlin who has campaigned against fracking in Leitrim and Roscommon, gave a presentation on fracking and explained that sites in West Clare are to have their potential for it explored.
At the shale layer, she said horizontal drilling occurs for between one and three kilometres. Millions of gallons of fracking fluid have to then be pumped down to crack the shale, allowing the gas to escape. She outlined some of the chemicals involved in the process.
“It causes disruption of the land and of communities and it won’t be living side by side with agriculture, this is heavy industrialisation,” Dr McLoughlin claimed.
She said fracking could lead to minor earth tremors and the impact on traffic would be like putting a housing estate every two miles.
A lack of regulation around the industry is a worry, she said. “We can’t allow this industry to come into Ireland until we have proper regulations in place for every aspect of the industry,” Dr McLoughlin added.
She claimed as it stands, there are risks of a chemical accident or a spillage with fracking. Other problems she identified were the possible contamination of lakes, toxic chemicals entering the food chain and the contamination of milk and meat. It would also lead to increased incidences of asthma and bronchial diseases.
Dr McLoughlin said those to benefit financially from fracking could include the State, Coillte, construction workers who would gain employment and farmers, who would lease their property.
She said losses would be felt in terms of public health, agriculture, traffic and noise and the risk of contamination of water systems.
Following her presentation, Councillor Gabriel Keating introduced his motion calling on Minister Rabbitte to ban fracking which received support from all sides.
Councillor Patricia McCarthy said she had “serious reservations” and said she was “afraid that no matter what regulations, it won’t be enough to save the environment”.
Councillor PJ Kelly said water is the greatest resource available and could be put at risk.
Green Party Councillor Brian Meaney put forward a motion before the meeting asking that the council “commence the process to amend or vary the current Clare County Development Plan in the interests of proper planning and sustainable development, that all intrusive fracking/shale gas extraction-related activity be halted pending the introduction of a regulatory national and European oversight that does not contravene existing European directives”.
However in a written reply, senior planner Gordon Daly was against this. “It is not considered necessary to amend or vary the current Clare County Development Plan as this and similar issues are adequately covered by existing objectives that deal with natural resources and environmental protection.”
However, Councillor Meaney didn’t accept this and said amending the plan “would put some real teeth” into the council’s opposition.
He said humanity’s dependence on fossil fuels is coming to an end and that industry is now “scraping the bottom of the barrel” and it “doesn’t care what damage is done in the scraping”.
Councillor Meaney said changing the development plan is a means of sending “a strong and clear signal”.
However, addressing the meeting, Mr Daly said Clare County Council wouldn’t be the consenting authority ­regarding proposals on fracking.
“The plan is robust enough to deal with any of the issues outlined and introducing a ban is not as straightforward as it seems,” he added.
County manager Tom Coughlan said it was his understanding that the council wouldn’t be in a position to make a decision regarding fracking but that it would be left up to the department.
However, many councillors still favoured introducing an explicit ban in the development plan and the proposal was passed unanimously.
Councillor Christy Curtin said the members have a “divine duty” to look after the county. He said it was important to meet the danger of fracking head-on and come out with a firm statement against it.
Independent James Breen said information he had received from the US about fracking was “frightening”. He called for fracking to be banned, not just in Clare, but in Ireland.
The motion was supported by Mayor of Clare, Pat Hayes. “I’m totally against fracking and we have a duty of care to the county,” he claimed.
The final wording of the amendment to the development plan will be agreed at a later stage.