I am very happy to support the anti-fracking legislation that is currently going through the oireachtas at the moment and it is a victory for the ordinary people who have campaigned hard on the issue for many years.
Tt is seldom that we as politicians are united in our support of measures being taken here but that is the case with this anti-fracking legislation, and for once the wishes of the people on the ground are being supported in here in Dail Eireann which is good. Small farmers are the guardians of the land and the landscape and I welcome any assistance that we can give them in that regard and this is one way of doing that. We also have a vibrant tourism industry in counties like Leitrim and Roscommon that could have been threatened by fracking but this bill will remove that fear.
On the wider issue of energy provision, we must have a debate on things like wind energy and other controversial forms of power generation. We have to be fair to people who live near wind turbines and pylons. There are always options, those options may be a bit more expensive then what’s planned now but the welfare of our people must come first. We should take the long view and plan for 50 and even 100 years ahead. We should look at all the options and have a reasonable debate and strike a balance between what is required and affordable and the wishes and well being of the population.
