The Petroleum and Other Minerals Development (Prohibition of Onshore Hydraulic Fracturing) Bill 2016 is expected to be signed into law by President Michael D Higgins in the coming days and the date for the commencement of the ban will then be confirmed, according to the Irish News.
Ireland will then join with three other European Union countries, France, Germany, and Bulgaria in banning the use of hydraulic fracturing on land within the country. The legislation is a particularly sweet victory because the bill to ban fracking was not brought by the government, making it the first “private members Bill to pass through the current Dáil.,” according to the Anglo Celt.
The Bill was introduced in 2016 by Sligo-Leitrim TD Tony McLoughlin and received wide public support. A public consultation period earlier this year received about 8,000 comments and only one public letter opposed the ban on fracking. Friends of the Earth and Love Leitrim helped to spearhead the anti-fracking campaign in the Republic.
‘We’ve made history,” McLoughlin tweeted after the vote and called it one of the “proudest moments in my political career.” In a statement, McLoughlin cited the problems that fracking has created in some U.S. states: “This law will mean communities in the West and North West of Ireland will be safeguarded from the negative effects of hydraulic fracking. Counties such as Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan and Clare will no longer face negative effects like those seen in cities and towns in the United States, where many areas have now decided to implement similar bans to the one before us.”
