Time to start talking about fracking

Ireland’s farming industry is going from strength to strength, with export sales at their highest in recent years and promises of €12.5bn of funding from the Government over the next seven years, to encourage further increases in export food production.

Some questions though: Will Irish food still be desirable or even acceptable overseas if fracking is introduced? Will that Government funding ever materialise? Seven years is a long time in politics, and goverment promises are easily forgotten or watered down due to excuses which seem to be easily found when needed. If fracking is allowed it is inevitable that there will be widespread contamination of water sources, which even private wells will not escape despite Government assurances. Reputations are fragile, and once tarnished are not easily recovered, especially in the case of contaminated water or food, and they will be impossible to rectify within the lifetime of the current population.

We have no mineral rights on our own land. These and any profits from them are owned by the Government, and we have very little control of our land use once drilling companies gain access. Where will they, the Government and prospectors, be when the land is ruined? So, is it to be farming, which at present is going from strength to strength in the domestic and export markets, or fracking, which offers little more than the false promises made by Government and speculators, and the certainty of a ruined agricultural reputation?

We need to decide; the two cannot co-exist. Should the Government be trusted to honour their promises of long-term funding, given their history of dealing with public money to date, and the fact that they may not be re-elected at the end of their current term anyway? Are their promises yet another “carrot on a stick” to try to make sure that they gain a large number of votes from the farming community? Do not forget, false promises come easy to most politicians; for example, Pat Rabbitte (“Yeah, well, I mean, isn’t that what you tend to do during an election?”), and Enda Kenny (“it is morally unjust and unfair to tax a person’s home.”). No political party has been without blemish!

So, do we cover our eyes and blindly follow our blundering leaders into yet another catastrophe, in the folly of sacrificing the farming industry on which this country depends? Do we do nothing, and lament when the drilling rigs and tankers roll in, and the farming and food exports are ruined, or do we inform ourselves about the dangers of fracking, and for once take ownership of our own destiny?

David Gorman

Kilrush

Co Clare