Time for debate on Ireland’s energy demand

David Whitehead (Letters, Jan 13) asserts that Clare County Council has banned the natural gas extraction method called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking“ in response to a vocal minority of protesters.

Fracking is a technology that has caused much fear and controversy. It may be that it can be successfully practised, but there are incidences in both the USA (of contaminated drinking water) and Britain (of earth tremors in Lancashire) that suggest that sometimes its side effects are not desirable. Among the more sensible of EU laws is the Precautionary Principle, which holds that we should not leap before we look into the possible environmental consequences of our actions. Hydraulic fracturing, as the name suggests, involves shattering the hard shale rocks that hold natural gas underground. The gas is then extracted by forcing water, sand and chemicals down to drive the gas into the head of the extraction well.

His letter also mentions the Shell to Sea protestors, who he says are contributing to keeping Ireland dependent on an uncompetitive electricity supply. Two cornerstones of the Shell to Sea protest have been the perceived danger to the local community of an experimental high-pressure gas pipeline design, and the loss to the Irish economy of the giveaway terms of the gas ownership contract. This is not “NIMBYism”, it is a realisation that neither the local nor the national interest is being best served.