Fracking ban lauded as a "great victory for local campaigners"

Yesterday's passing of the Bill to ban onshore fracking has been lauded as 'a great victory for local campaigners and a boost for the global climate movement' by a leading environmental organisation.
The Petroleum and Other Minerals Development (Prohibition of Onshore Hydraulic Fracturing) Bill 2016 will now move on to the President for signing after passing through the Seanad yesterday afternoon. Ireland is now only the third European country to ban the practice after France and Bulgaria.

The Bill brought by Sligo-Leitrim TD Tony McLoughlin has received widespread support from across the political spectrum and was the first private members Bill to pass through the current Dáil.
The Environmental Pillar - a coalition of 26 Irish environmental NGOs - says the decision will help safeguard our water quality, natural environment and the health and well-being of communities across Ireland.
The Bill has also received widespread public support, with a public consultation launched earlier this year received around 8,000 submissions. Only one public letter opposed a ban.

Fracking is used to extract onshore natural gas from areas rich in shale rock. It involves the pumping of a high-pressure mix of water, chemicals and sand into the rock to create openings so that gas can seep out into deep wells. Large shale and other tight sandstone deposits are found across counties Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Donegal and Clare.
A recent Environmental Protection Agency study states that fracking has the potential to damage both the environment and human health. An April 2017 report from the Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment also found that it would be irresponsible to give fracking the go-ahead in Ireland.
Kate Ruddock, Environmental Pillar spokesperson and Deputy Director of FoE Ireland, said: 'This ban is a great victory for the local campaigners who have mobilized and educated themselves, their communities and their elected representatives on the threat fracking poses to local water, regional employment and global climate.
'All around the world communities are campaigning to keep fossil fuels in the ground and to put citizens at the heart of a new, clean, healthy energy system. This victory is a tribute to their solidarity and is a shot in the arm for our common cause of a fossil free future.
'Ireland has a reputation as a climate laggard and too often our lack of climate action is a cause of embarrassment internationally, but today we can be proud of our parliament for putting Ireland in the vanguard of the movement to ban fracking.'
'We salute all those TDs who have worked to progress and improve this Bill, in particular Tony McLoughlin who has sponsored this Bill for the last year. The passage of the Bill shows that 'new politics' can produce progressive results when deputies from all parties and none work with each other and those who elect them to tackle the challenges we face.'

Aedín McLoughlin, Environmental Pillar spokesperson and GEAI Director, said:

'We are delighted with the decision which makes it very clear that the risks associated with the deeply damaging practice of fracking are just too significant to ever let it take place here.

'The long road is travelled and we have come successfully to its end. For six years we have looked forward to this day, when the Irish government would ban fracking and protect our rural environment and communities from this industry that poisons drinking water and air.

'We congratulate everyone involved - our fellow campaigners who never gave up the struggle to make this issue a national one; our local and national representatives who spoke out against fracking in Councils throughout Ireland as well as the Dáil; and our TDs and Senators who unanimously supported the Bill.

'Ireland may now hold its head high as it joins the ranks of countries that have banned fracking.'