Catherine Martin on Fracked Gas Policy Wording in the Programme For Government Talks 22 June 2020 скачать в хорошем качестве

Catherine Martin on Fracked Gas Policy Wording in the Programme For Government Talks 22 June 2020

Green Party TD Catherine Martin explaining the importance of policy in the approach taken by her in the talks on the formulation of wording for the Programme for Government agreed with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in June 2020 - setting Ireland on course to becoming the first country in the world to ban the importation of Fracked gas. Further reporting in the Irish Independent: https://www.independent.ie/irish-news... 'Really unhelpful' - Catherine Martin says Varadkar has made her feel 'uneasy' about deals made in programme for government Mícheál Ó Scannáil June 22 2020 08:42 PM The deputy leader of the Green Party has called out "the elephant in the room" Leo Varadkar, whose comments on Shannon LNG, she said, have cast doubts over deals made in the programme for government. The Green Party negotiated having Government support for a liquefied natural gas receiving terminal on the Shannon Estuary, due to be built by Shannon LNG, removed from the programme for Government. Catherine Martin said that comments made last weekend by an Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, however, undermined the deal, which was a critical element of government formation negotiations for her party. "I have to call out the elephant in the room tonight, which is of course the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar," she said in a Green Party Zoom conference which featured actor Mark Ruffalo. "His comments over the weekend have been really unhelpful to this entire process." The agreement says that we the government will withdraw the Shannon energy terminal from the EU projects of common interest list and the programme for government also states 'we do not support the importation of fracked gas, and shall develop a policy statement to establish that approach'. Removing the project from the EU list means that it will no longer receive government subsidies and removes access to streamlined planning and permission processes as well as the eligibility to multi-billion-euro funding Speaking to Fine Gael members in a Facebook Live event on Sunday, Mr Varadkar said that the government will not be helping the Shannon LNG project, but suggested it may still become reality as the private company may still pursue it. The removal of support for the terminal which would have processed fracked gas he described as "a bitter pill to swallow". Ms Martin, who was the lead negotiator for the Green Party in government formation and the drafting of the programme for government, admitted that Mr Varadkar's comments made her feel "uneasy" about the commitments made by Fine Gael as part of those negotiations. "The other two parties we negotiated this deal with were not comfortable with the wording but we sought and got, eventually into the programme for government," she said. "We fought hard, and we got it there and the three parties to agree this, so unfortunately comments and media appearances by various elected members of these parties over recent days cast doubt over the strength of the agreed wording on the LNG, so it just goes to show there's a resistance there all along the way, even though we have in the program for government. "To be honest, their comments made me feel uneasy too."