The Hulk takes a swipe at Sinn Féin over fracking stance 

Mark Ruffalo has taken a swipe at Sinn Féin over the party's stance on fracking. Picture:  Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Star of The Avengers movies Mark Ruffalo has taken a swipe at Sinn Féin over the party's stance on fracking.

The American actor, who plays The Hulk in the superhero films, took part in an online seminar last night, calling for the party to fight a DUP petroleum licensing policy that campaigners say would lead to fracking in the North.

Sinn Féin has indicated in recent days that it would block the licensing policy if the plan makes it to the Northern Executive.

However, Ruffalo — who is a long-time anti-fracking activist — said that "Sinn Féin and the Northern government has obfuscated" on the reports used to justify licensing. 

He said that the North is "starting way ahead" of where his home town in New York did when it fought against the practice.

He said that Sinn Féin needed to show action and commit to a "full health assessment". He also accused the party of "backing off" on the issue.

"We have years of rhetoric [from Sinn Féin] with very little action right now," he said. 

They are talking out of both sides of their mouths, and we want them to stop. They aren't saying they will stop the policy, that they will stop the licensing of huge tracts of land."

Asked for a message for the party's leader Mary Lou McDonald, Ruffalo said: "Do what you say you're going to do and be the hero. Do the right thing."

Ireland banned fracking in 2017 but the International Solidarity Campaign to Ban Fracking in Northern Ireland says that the proposed petroleum licensing policy option would allow oil and gas companies to proceed with drilling in Fermanagh and other areas. 

Dr Carroll O'Dolan, a local GP in Fermanagh, said that a full health impact assessment would show that "there's no way you could go ahead with this".

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a catch-all term for the extraction of onshore gas whereby water, sand, and chemicals are pumped into a gas-bearing rock at high pressures.

Sinn Féin in November brought a bill that would ban the practice, but this was called a "meaningless gesture" if the party did not commit to blocking the licensing programme. 

Campaigners told Thursday's meeting that Sinn Féin needed to show "meaningful action" and come up with a policy that outright bans all forms of fracking and said that the Sinn Féin bill only banned fracking in certain areas.