Press Release                                                                  21^st. September 2011

“An Taisce calls for Moratorium on Fracking”

An Taisce called for a moratorium on ‘Fracking’ in a presentation to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment, Transport, Culture and the Gaeltacht.

At yesterday’s Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment, Transport, Culture and the Gaeltacht Charles Stanley-Smith, Chair of An Taisce The National Trust for Ireland stated “An Taisce is calling for a Ban on ‘Fracking’ until such time as the People of Ireland can be convinced that it is possible to regulate Fracking, so that it can be undertaken sustainably and as a result there will be no environmental, social or economic harm.”

He continued “Fracking has gained a very poor reputation in recent years, with many cases of environmental and societal damage recorded in the US.  Much of this is due to the large amount of land used and its proximity to population and groundwater.  Many would say that the pollution was caused by lax regulation in the past.  Others say that Europe and Ireland can learn from the mistakes of the US and ‘Frack’ under ‘Best Practices’.  Unfortunately, Ireland has an extremely poor history of environmental enforcement and the environmental threats of Fracking are many and due to the hundreds of sites involved will be cumulative. Can you really convince the People of Ireland that ‘this time it will be OK’?”

“An Taisce is very aware of the potential jobs that ‘Fracking’ could provide so we are also calling for a full ‘Life Cycle Analysis’ to be undertaken on Fracking to see if it will really bring benefits to the People of Ireland and at what risk?”

Ends

For further commentary/clarification please contact:

Charles Stanley-Smith, Chair,  An Taisce The National Trust for Ireland, 087 2411995

Download An Taisce’s Presentation from here

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