€3 million! Chump change for these companies. Here’s €4 million, keep the change. €3 billion, now there’s a fine.

“Anyone involved in breaching the regulations could also face a jail sentence of up to three years.”
That has them quaking in the boardrooms of Wall Street and Frankfurt.
They are going to make a mess of Lough Allen, pollute the Shannon and leave with whatever loot they can get and Rabbitte and other Ministers will be boasting that they created jobs – yeah, making the tea and cleaning up for the next 100 years.

I’m sure they are shaking in their boots at the thought of those minimal fines!

Sad to see we are allowing fracking in Ireland.

Goodbye to our tourism industry. Hello health implications.

Fracking will do nothing but harm to our environment. Shame on Ireland for allowing this.

I have been following this issue very closely for months. The Irish government is NOT allowing fracking. According to Pat Rabbitte, only licensing options have been handed out so far. The government has committed to carrying out a second more detailed study as the University of Aberdeen study confirmed that a more comprehensive research is required. (Of course, those who have researched fracking know there is no safe means of extracting gas using this method, as Cornell University Professor Anthony Ingraffea and many other well-respected, independent experts have confirmed.) In fact, every single peer-reviewed scientific study proves that the entire lifecycle of shale gas development causes serious contamination to air, water, and land. It would be economic insanity for our government to hand out exploitation licences to an industry that even when regulated has contaminated thousands of communities in Canada, the US and Australia, when our agri-food sector alone is worth €24 billion a year. But then again, economic insanity would be nothing new for the Irish government.

The government, the gas companies and the corporate-funded media have all realised that public opposition to unconventional gas exploration is stronger than they expected , hence why they now need to ramp up their PR campaign with the help of two PR agencies, pr360.ie and Weber Shandwick.

Try all they like to sway public opinion, the fight is still strong on the ground and there are literally thousands of Irish people nationwide who will never allow fracking to go ahead, as it will harm their livelihoods – tourism, agriculture, organic farming, agri-food, etc. – sustainable multi-billion industries that will exist long after the gas men have left.

Many regions and countries around the world have been successful in introducing bans and moratoria, so it is possible to stop fracking from going ahead. Don’t let articles like the above make you feel as if the fight has been lost, if anything it is only beginning! :)

It will be a sad day for Ireland when fracking starts. What have we done with our dignity?

Why does the govt go ahead with this ‘fracking’ even though the dangers are known. Even the name of the process doesn’t inspire confidence. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

the cowboys who ran the country into the ground have found a new hobby. fracking suits them so well.

It is in the earth for a reason. Leave it there

This has to stop being perceived as a “Leitrim” issue. There are ten counties over the Island of IReland potentially to be affected by this process.
The time has come for the rest of the country to wake up to the fact that the only growth industries, Agriculture/agri business and tourism , which have shown a small growth and upward trend for the last two years, will be wiped out if horizontal hydraulic fracturing goes ahead. Another HUGE issue is that the Bundoran shale layer sits atop of the Ballyshannon Limestone, an aquifer of regional importance (providing drinking water to Ballyshannon and surrounding areas), which if polluted by byproducts of the industry or chemicals, would not be able to be “fixed”, unlike our media and some of our elected representatives.

You know fracking is bad news when they need economic or national turmoil to introduce it. Cheney signed all the licences and legisalation in America in the weeks after 9/11 hoping no one would notice. Now with our backs against the wall they dangle this carrott in front of us, trouble is, its a ticking time bomb thats gonna go off in our faces.

The financial implcations are horrific. Another great “oil and gas giveaway”. One of the companies circling Ireland like vultures bandys around figures which change each time they speak, or are quoted by our “captured” media.
We will buy “our” gas back at market prices. End of story. The small companies with the loudest voices will not be drilling, one of the big boys will be actually carrying out the degrading , environmentally devastating exploitation of the countryside.
Shell has an environmental record, (think Niger delta and the Ogoni Nine) which is shameful. All these companies pay lip service to environmental concerns whilst hoovering up the profits, and leaving communities split and bewildered, with health and fiscal issues to further add to their tribulations.
We (North West Network against Fracking) have surveyed over 900 tourists to date: 85% would not come here (to the NorthWest and West (Clare basin also under attack) if it were to be perceived as an industrialized mining zone). We will put the final results of the survey up on http://www.frackingfreeireland.com as soon as our survey is complete, along with some hard, realistic fnancial facts and figures, which show not some pie in the sky gains (as blurbed by the gas men/wimmin) but what we stand, and generations to come, TO LOSE.

3m is loose change to these guys. Why not focus on tourism & renewable energy instead of ruining the natural beauty of the west for a quick buck?

Does anybody know how we can help to stop this…this is the last straw

Lisa, the first shale basin they plan to exploit is the North West, see more details here:

http://goodenergiesalliance.com/affected-areas/leitrim-and-sligo/current-plans/

There are also plans to frack in the Clare Basin which covers areas of Clare, Limerick, Kerry and Cork.

So it’s not just Leitrim, as many Irish people think! This is a national issue!

GEAI is the official campaign group, but you can get regular updates on the campaign via the newsletters from the Fracking Free Ireland website and keep in touch via the many Facebook groups – NO FRACKING IRELAND (all caps) is the main one.

Please share the information with your contacts and find out how you can get involved!

A total BAN is what the people wish and we will fight this tooth and nail to prevent our country from been destroyed see NO FRACKING IRELAND on facebook join up and have a voice in our resistance.

This is a disgrace. The country side will be wrecked if they do like in the US & Canada. And the people who come in to do this work won’t care one bit. I think the people living in the areas where these sites are to be set up should keep video logs if this does start. as proof. The gov won’t care.

With ireland s history in regulation and enforcement, this had me petrified!! How trained and experienced are these regulators? Will they be inspecting every single incident of fracking? … From experience in the construction industry, and from the banking sector, irish regulatory enforcement systems are a joke!!

Spot on, Sonya. The idea of being able to regulate this industry is a joke anyway. Who would enforce the regulations? Are the regulators going to be on site 24/7 to ensure regulations are adhered to – because 24/7 monitoring is essential in such an industry. Of course, they’re not. Even the drilling companies themselves have admitted that they can’t monitor what happens once they begin to drill the shale horizontally, and let’s not even talk about the well casings. Leaks are inevitable. And the flowback material, containing all those naturally occurring radioactive materials? Really, we are so much better informed than they think! If they seriously think they are going to foist this upon the Irish people and drive our country into further economic ruin, they can think again! I wonder if the companies have factored in the costs associated with direct action. If they have, they’ll know it’s not worth their while fracking anywhere on this island.

sounds like they’ve made their minds up to go ahead despite Minister Rabbittes assurances to the contrary..3 million will be nothing if damage is done.. 1/4 of the whole island could be affected..we sell ourselves cheap..the revenue that could be brought in over the 50 years would hardly pay 2 bondholder payments…but thats fine who caares if children become sick or our water supply is destroyed..and not neverminding turning a rural area into an industrial zone and having to live with it

This Fracking is bad news. Did the Gorvernent give permission for it to happen.

as we look forward
to paying for the dumbing-down
of fluoride in the water charges

We can look back with fondness
to a long proud age of free
transcendental medication

on tap

but between us, fear not
despair not, for our fine future
is furnished with the highs

of a new fracking-laced legacy
and we’ll all have our money’s worth
with an added dose of methane

free chemicals, unspellable
and a mere spark-away
from a new water

that burns

thanks for putting the avaaz petition up Dervilla, over ten thousand signatures so far:)

That’s gas.

Peition in operation. Pls signn and circulate widely
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Ban_Fracking_Ireland/

Whats needed urgently is a serious and open public debate. The implications to our Tourism and food industries need to be quantified and highlighted. Has anyone even considered the impact of countless Articulated Truck and Tanker traffic on our rural roads and towns, never mind the millions of gallons of water required on a daily basis to execute this process? If ever there was a case for a Referendem this is one, after all this has the potential to be more damaging to us than any European Legistation. Fracking 2 everyone!

475,000 litres of crude oil spilled in Alberta, I wonder what trivial fine that will attract.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/06/08/alberta-oil-spill-red-deer-river_n_1581008.html?ir=Canada&ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

OK, so first of all giving a fine to a company that has a firm grasp on one of the worlds most lucrative resources is hardly going to send a shock wave through the industry. All that will happen here is that the companies will either blame individuals for negligence or just report incidents as unforeseeable accidents to which no one can be held accountable. Secondly, just how do you monitor the integrity of a structure that is 2 miles underground? This seems to me to be a token from government to try and display to the people of Ireland that they care, when clearly they do not as we have seen in Rossport… NO TO FRACKING..

Lisa, yes there are reserves there. Contact the GEAI directly and they’ll provide you with all the information you need and more!

Please don’t forget to sign the petition. 10,000 signatures already so that gives you an idea of how much opposition is out there: http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Ban_Fracking_Ireland/?cskVZab

Fracking hell. This is a fracking joke.

I thought that fracking was banned? What’s going on?

From the Oklahoma Fracking / Earthquake experience, if this fracking goes ahead in Leitrim / Donegal and the Clare Basin – it will create Earthquake zones from Donegal to Tralee.

Ballina, Castlebar, Cavan, Monaghan, Longford and Roscommon towns will all be in the Earthquake zones.

Galway City, Limerick City and Tralee will all be in the Clare Basin Earthquake zone.

Viewers from all over the World will be watching the Rose of Tralee on TV, and the Roses could all heel over live on TV due to an Earthquake tremors caused by the drilling and Fracking in Loop Head.

http://www.treehugger.com/energy-disasters/fracking-may-have-already-caused-50-earthquakes-oklahoma.html

Buildings in all of those towns will probably end up with cracked foundations.

Would the Irish State be then liable for the structural damage from the Earthquakes caused by Fracking, as the Government would have issued the fracking licences ?

http://www.facebook.com/President.Mulqueen

Does anyone know where they have already done some testing and surveying for shale gas potential? should people be monitoring areas?

http://youtu.be/y4SgPKHikPM

I’m still not sure though on what testing they have already carried out that has made them so sure there is potential here? Is there a report or anything with regards that?

Also couldn’t they be testing in remote areas right now for all we know?

those are the questions I can’t get answers to.

Why shouldn’t we be franking? I’d sooner we availed of our natural resources than borrow for imported energy abroad. We should go nuclear, and stop placing additional financial burden on our kids.

P.S. all for robust fines for polluters.