Hydraulic Fracturing (fracking)

FoI 52-14
1 August 2014

“Under Freedom of Information legislation I would like to have information supplied to me on any assembly debates and resolutions conducted from 2010 to date on the issue of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and land based exploration for oil and gas in Northern Ireland.”

The following motion was debated and agreed on 6/12/2011. Please see details of the motion as follows:

That this Assembly believes that a moratorium should be placed on the onshore and offshore exploration, development and production of shale gas, by withdrawing licences for hydraulic fracturing (fracking), at least until the publication of a detailed environmental impact assessment into the practice; notes that hydraulic fracturing can put local water sources at risk of contamination; further notes that, amongst a variety of adverse environmental impacts, the process of fracking can cause serious well blowouts, which put both workers and local communities at risk; considers that the production of hard-to-reach fossil fuels is not compatible with efforts to achieve carbon reduction targets; and urges the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment to give greater support to the generation of energy from renewable sources instead.

There have been no other plenary debates on either of these subjects.