Anti-fracking activists come together

By Conor Ryan, Investigative Correspondent

Thursday, February 02, 2012

The first national meeting of anti-fracking activists will take place this weekend, in the wake of a prediction by an Australian exploration firm that there is 40 years’ worth of gas in the North-West.

Environmentalists from Munster will travel to Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, to join protestors dealing with the most advanced fracking exploration effort in the country.

This week Tamboran Resources said with an investment of more than €6 billion, it can disrupt and harvest "tremendous" natural reserves in north Leitrim.

The company is looking to attract €100m in private investment, particularly in Britain, to fund the drive to establish the extent of the reserves and secure regulatory approval for drilling to begin in 2014.

Tamboran is at the vanguard of an exploration wave that has been focused on perceived pockets of natural gas in Leitrim, Fermanagh, Roscommon, Cavan, Sligo, Clare, Kerry, Limerick, and Cork.

However, Leah Doherty of No Fracking Ireland said the headline figures for 3,000 jobs and 40 years of gas were part of a propaganda campaign seeking to take advantage of people’s financial concerns.

"This is how they sell it to win over public opinion, by dangling jobs in front of people at a time when they are needed," she said.

She said international experience was that these jobs would not materialise and those that did would involve many international skilled workers.

On Saturday, protesters in the North-West will be joined by members of the Clare lobby group, which convinced councillors to block attempts to develop on the desk top studies underway in Doonbeg.

The Clare project is the first option granted in a exploration basin stretching from Meelin, North Cork across to northern Kerry and west Clare.

The indications from Enegi Oil, the company working in Clare, is that its studies have gone well.

Susan Griffin, of Clare Fracking Concerned, said there are fears that the Government has already sided with the exploration companies and take a dim view on councillors who vote to hinder the prospect of future licences.

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, February 02, 2012