Some forward thinking there

How can councilors – who, in Donegal, are mostly teachers, accountants, nurses, paramedics, publicans – make a decision as important as this before the EPA have conducted its review? I’m not saying I’m for or against fracking, but there’s no way cowboys should be making decisions like this.

Frack that

That’s great news! Finally some sense, now to get the rest of them to ban it.

If you lived in one of these areas you would be aware of the strong opposition from the local population. Surely this is democracy at work for once in Ireland. It was an easy decision for councillors to make and it won’t hurt their image one bit. There are a lot of towns across the U.S badly damaged by the fracking industry. It’s not just the wells, it’s the infrastructure and massive increase in traffic that would destroy the ecology of the picture perfect towns they wish to encroach on. The sooner a nationwide ban is put in place the better.

Luddites.

Iv seen first hand the effects of fracking in Queensland Australia, pipes destroying the land scape and populating local rivers with every sort of chemical, well done to these councils!

Ireland is too populated for fracking. Great to see our northwestern seaboard counties awake. Any chance of giving Leinster a good kick up the backside? Aim for An Dáil.

They don’t want Corrib gas, they don’t want their own gas, they don’t want the ESB building power lines and yet they’ll complain about being left behind by the Celtic tiger!

“believed to be a multibillion deposit of natural shale gas” , surely this would create employment and help kick start a regional economy? Agh but I forgot us Irish love to moan about how bad times are so we’ll ban!

Fantastic news!!

Get me a new pair of boxers, I’m after shitting myself

Mate, this week was the first time in 6 years that I was able to come home and pack away my clothes knowing i wont have to hop on a plane in the morning after being working abroad cause the country was in the shit. So forgive me for forcing my point but if local county councils are what’s stopping employment “growth” for our country then we’re just going backwards. All well and good there are environmental issues but I’m sure there are certain measures that can be implemented to protect surrounding areas and water systems.

@Niall, I agree we should not just blindly ban something that could be a welcome jobs boost in areas where depression is on the increase. Facts are needed on the impact on the enviroment not rumours and guesswork.A little more time waiting for this report would have been sensible and if indeed the impact on our beautiful country is vicious and corrosive as some say,then a country wide ban should be implemented.

unfortunately the EPA is being advised in part by Aberdeen University. The EPA may be independent, but let us not forget the Energy officer for An Taisce, another “independent” body, the illustrious Elizabeth Muldowney, who happened to front seminars on the joys of hydraulic fracturing. Aberdeen university survives due to huge subsidies and scholarships which come directly from the big 3 – Halliburton, Shell, and Schlumberger, who will be involved in the drilling here. The three front companies who hold the options licenses , Tamboran, Energi, and Finavera Gas, do not have the capacity to drill for gas, or build the intensive industrial infrastructure required for this type of operation. The jobs which are being mooted by the oil salesmen would be welcomed if they meant that agriculture and tourism, (the only growth industries in the North west at the moment, food exports up, and tourism up 10% from 2010 figures) would not be decimated. Fracking, Tourism and Agriculture make uneasy bedfellows. Why allow a highly controversial, (except for those in the industry, who can and do make vast profits) process to decimate and degrade our environment. There are alternative sources of energy that would provide jobs, in the long term. Fracking is a boom and bust industry. Many wells are unviable, so that intensive drilling has to take place to justify the costs incurred. Our eco systems, our water tables, lakes, streams , rivers , are at severe risk. The huge drive should be for long term solutions, wind, wave, solar and blue energy, and as consumers, we should all cut down on our usage. Car share, switch off, turn down thermostats, insulate, and double glaze whenever possible.
The jobs in fracking are not sustainable. Very few people are needed after the initial building phases, and they would probably be imported engineers. I am sure that enthusiastic security staff vis a vis, Shell’s private army in Rossport, Irms, might be required, but the figures dont add up. The last point is that the gas would not belong to us. The government would take in a tax of 25% (in Norway it is 90%) , to pay off the IMF, and the gas would be sold back to Bord Gais on the international markets at international prices. But at the end of the day, nothing can justify the inevitable leaching of toxic chemicals, or migration of fluids or gas, and the pollution of our air, water, and environment. Not even jobs. look at the “boom” in the building industry and where it landed Ireland inc. We need slow, sustainable, green energy sources, and we need to educate ourselves about them now.

this is brilliant , finally the littel peepil slag the face of big bidniss , we would be the only ones loosing out if this was to be allowed go ahead – in so many ways , well done councillors

The £500 deal for Irelands Gas and Oil.

Interesting piece by Conor Mc Cabe in this months edition of History Ireland.

Rather than offer a personal opinion I will quote a few excerpts and let those interested opine.

“In March 1958 an Oil was Company registered in Dublin with a view to securing rights for 27,000 square miles of the Irish Republic.”

The shareholders were 3 American guys calling themselves Madonna Oil. They were granted exclusive exploration drilling rights by Seam Lemass for a sum of £500.

They sold a two thirds share in 1961 for $450,000. By 1975 and the discovery of Gas in Kinsale the shareholding had been bought and sold on numerous occasions and was worth £31m.

In 1958 the 3 American investors had employed Arthur Cox and Co. has solicitors.

When they sold a majority share for 450,000 they were replaced on the new board by Arthur Cox and Partner Daniel Joseph O Connor.

This company later became Marathon Oil.

In 1965 the Govt was convinced by Marathon Oil to ratify the Geneva Convention which gave the Sovereign juristiction over it,s Ocean floor.

The Govt renegotiated the original deal but allowed Marathon to not only keep one third of the Oil and Gas rights but to choose which one third they preferred.

Marathon kept the Kinsale field and eventually discovered gas and sold it back to the Irish State for £700 million.

This renegotiation led to financial speculation not Oil and Gas speculation.

Licenses were sold to people with no Oil and Gas expoloration experience for as little as £610 and were then sold on to Oil and Gas companies for their true worth.

The UK were selling off Oil blocks for £1.25 m.

The concessions given to Marathon were described by Dr Sean O Connell as “amazing and exceptional.”

In 1989 Minister Ray Burke reduced the States 50% share in off shore Oil and Gas was reduced to zero, he also abolished royalties.

4 years later the Corrib Gas field was discovered.

Interesting reading.

I live in New York State, USA. New York State is next to Pennsylvania. They have been fracking in Pennsylvania for about 5 yrs. and have devistated the land, contaminated the water, made the people and animals sick forever. There is no way to fix contaminated water supplies, not even with money. They can’t sell the land. Banks won’t give mortgages on it. They try to sell the animals and animal products to places that don’t realize they have been contaminated with fracking chemicals, so who knows if they are eating some of it? The roads have been destroyed. There is no place to dispose of millions of gallons of chemical laced water, to they have resorted to dumping it on the roads when nobody is around. Yes, a few people have made money, but it has cost most people money they don’t have along with their health and happiness. My family came from Ireland, and one reason they came here was because it reminded them of home. We in New York State are in the midst of a battle to keep fracking out of here because we see what it has done in Pennsylvania. PLEASE PLEASE don’t let it into Ireland. It would only take them a few short years to destroy your whole country, a place that I someday hope to visit. If fracking comes to Ireland, I won’t.

See also earthquakes caused by fracking in Ohio, report from reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/02/us-usa-quakes-wells-idUSTRE8010GW20120102

Reliance only on the EPA to make this decision for Ireland is not to be trusted as the EPA is to be advised and assisted Aberdeen University who are in receipt of large amounts of funding from oil and gas giants Haliburton unbiased findings I think not back handers and brown envelopes quite possibly http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/2011/11/22/00224.asp
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/cops/graduate/news/391/
The granting of exploration licences in the dying days of Fianna Fail are a final act of Treason

For those proponents in the cause of employment, the companies involved have said themselves that after initial installation of the pumps the process is very heavily automated. Aside from specialist maintenance work that will in all likelihood (anyone here a fracking repair specialist?) be subcontracted off-shore, there will be only maybe one or two people for the entire country over 12 years!!!
That is seriously f*ck all to be placing concrete pads every two km sq. from north leitrim/donegal to clare!

For those that say the country will still derive revenue from it…where? the govt will take a nominal one-time fee for esploration costs, the land owners will have the short term payments for the land sellout, and pump pads arent that big in land size, and thats it. Just like shell and the rest we wont even get a look in at the gas, itll be exported because the price will be better and Tamboran or whoever will get that and they’re austrailian so they wont even pay tax in ireland on the sale of the gas.

for those that say the co councils shoulldnt be banning this at this stage, this is democracy at work, the overwhelmingly majority of people in the affected areas feel very strongly against this and a lot of them have read a lot of theory on the subject and still feel the same. In a democracy the majority is right, thats how it works – for once the TDs etc have actually done their jobs as they should have done – well done to them!

As you may have guessed I am a western resident, but I have tried to keep away from the env. aspects in this post and argue on the terms of the proposed advantages, that are nnot actually advantages at all….

The problem may arise that there won’t be enough natural gas supply left by other means and these methods may be the only means that a supply can be reached. Surely we shouldn’t be so quick to ban something that potentially may save us alot of money on importing a supply in the future? Definitely there has been no official comment as of yet so these public authorities are ‘jumping the gun’ in their bans