Carlow councillors call for oil and gas drilling off our coasts

CARLOW county councillors passed a motion at the May council meeting calling on the government to allow for oil and gas exploration in Irish territorial waters so that the country can become energy self-sufficient.

The motion was proposed by independent cllr Charlie Murphy, who said that although the aim is for Ireland to get to net zero eventually, the country will be “dependent on fossil fuels for the foreseeable future”. He stated that the government has already started to move the goalposts regarding net zero as it admits that it is unlikely the country will be net zero by 2050.

Cllr Murphy said that he was proposing the motion for “our own climate and energy sovereignty,” as Ireland imports so much of its natural gas and oil from overseas.

Many councillors spoke in support of cllr Murphy’s motion.

Fine Gael councillor Ben Ward said that although he supported the motion, he believed that Ireland should be reliant on a mix of fossil fuels and renewable energy, as the recent conflict in the Middle East had shown how unreliable fossil fuels could be.

Another Fine Gael councillor, Michael Doran, said that although the country should be moving towards net zero, Ireland should know what reserves of oil and gas it has in case they are needed in the future.

Jim Deane, a Sinn Féin councillor, told the meeting that he was losing faith in renewable energy because it is not making people’s energy bills any cheaper.

Carlow mayor and Fine Gael councillor Paul Doogue said that he believed that people in Carlow are doing their bit to become more sustainable, but that the country needs “some sort of back-up system”.

Deputy Carlow mayor and Fine Gael councillor Fergal Browne said that while the country had made great progress with producing energy through solar panels, being completely reliant on other countries for fossil fuels made Ireland vulnerable.

Sinn Féin councillor Andy Gladney said that although lots of renewable energy infrastructure had gone up throughout the country, the cost of energy was increasing for most households and was not bringing down costs, as had been promised.

People Before Profit councillor Adrienne Wallace spoke against the motion, calling it “reactive and short-sighted”. She said that the county has already seen the effects of climate change in the flooding that occurred in Carlow a few months ago. Instead of turning to fossil fuels, she said that there are “sustainable, proactive and safe ways of ensuring we have our sovereign energy”.

The only other councillor to speak against the motion was Fianna Fáil’s Daniel Pender. He said that he understood why people were voting in favour of the motion, but he believed that the motion would not affect energy prices at all, if passed, as it would take another ten to 15 years for natural gas to come onstream.

He went on to stay that because of climate change, as much fossil fuel as possible needed to be kept in the ground and that their needed to be a serious discussion regarding nuclear power.

The motion passed with 16 votes for and two against.