This article is from page 18 of the 2012-12-11 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 18 JPG
CLARE Green Party councillor, Brian Meaney has suggested that the Clare County Development Plan be changed to allow for fracking to take place, but only if it undertaken by a member of the local community.
The suggestion was made at last night’s December meeting of Clare County Council following a motion by the Green Party councillor concerning the status of a ban on fracking, which was asked for by the elected members of Clare County Council earlier this year.
In response to this motion, Ger Dollard, Director of Services with Clare County Council, said that it was not within the legal remit covered by the County Development Plan to place an outright ban on any activity – or any “crude exclusionary policy”.
Cllr Meaney then suggested that instead of introducing a ban on fracking, the council could take a “more creative” approach to the issue and change the County Development Plan to allow for fracking, but only by Clare people.
“We really don’t have a lot of power to change our own County Development Plan in order to reflect the needs of the elected members,” said Cllr Meaney.
“There is an awful lot going on with the energy companies. They are building up a reasonable expectation that they are going to be able to exploit this gas. The EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] and the European Commission still have not taken a proper look at whether this can be extracted properly. We still don’t know how people are going to be affected by this most intrusive of activities.”
In his response, Mr Dollard also said that there was no “hesitancy” from Clare County Council to deal with the fracking situation in the Clare Basin.
“The council will keep the matter under review and monitor progress at national level on the assessment of the issues and report back to the elected members in due curse,” he said.
“The council can be assured that there is no hesitancy on the part of the planning authority but any proposal must accord with law and be based on any national guidance on the issue.”
After successful test in West Clare, UK based company Enegi Oil confirmed last week that it intends to apply for a fracking license from the Department of energy next year.