Dail Votes to Ban Carbon Exploration in Irish Waters

Harry Palmr

https://www.thejournal.ie/oil-and-gas-exploration-ban-ireland-4565618-Mar2019/

A MAJORITY OF the Dáil voted to ban oil and gas drilling in Irish waters today, despite government opposition.

The ‘Keep it in the Ground’ Bill, if passed into law will make Ireland the 5th country globally to ban oil and gas exploration.

It aims to stop the issuing of any new licences for the exploration of fossil fuels, something Costa Rica, Belize and France have already implemented.

The Bill passed the Dáil in February 2018 but it has since stalled due to the Oireachtas Environment Committee refusing to progress the Bill back to the Dáil.

Today’s Dáil approval means the Bill should now proceed to Select Committee stage, said TD Bríd Smith, who added this would bring it one step closer to becoming law

Predictably the government is agin this citing reliance on imports but we can all agree this government is really just thinking about how much easier life would be if an infinite amount of black gold was found rather than having to develop and implement sustainable low/no carbon energy polices. Hopefully this makes it to the statute books as it would help make the break with a destructive way of thinking - a bit like a gambler locking himself out of a bookies web site.

Rigor Mortis

It's slightly misleading. The majority of the Dail voted to allow a Bill go to the next stage. Both FF and SF have indicated that they plan to instigate very significant amendments to this bill. It will be interesting where they find the balance on this one.

marno21

Whatever about oil, it's naive and short sighted to believe that Ireland won't be deriving a large amount of energy from natural gas over the next few decades. Having access to Irish gas would be useful in terms of energy supply along with the other windfalls.