Clarification needed from Economy Minister, Diane Dodds, over claims she misled the Assembly with respect to the Hatch led research on petroleum licensing.
Assembly Economy Committee must investigate conduct of this research with full public disclosure of all documentation
On the 23rd March in answer to Assembly Question 16757/17-22 the Minister specifically stated,"The research by Hatch Regeneris will analyse the environmental, social and economic impacts of onshore petroleum exploration and development in Northern Ireland across a range of scenarios. The report will not include policy options or make policy recommendations. I refer the member to my response to AQW 16481/17-22 in which I indicated that the research will assess impacts across a range of scenarios, including a baseline scenario of no exploration and development."
At the FODC Special Regeneration & Community Committee on the15th April 2021 Neil Evans from Hatch, who are conducting the research on behalf of the Department, confirmed that the baseline scenario considered would involve petroleum licences being granted and exploration activity.
Mr Evans stated
"the no production scenario isn't a prohibition scenario... you could call it a status quo scenario where no production actually takes place but it doesn't rule out the possiblity of an unlimited amount of exploration activity occurring".
Belcoo Frack Free chair Tom White commented.
"We engaged with Hatch and were requested to submit a detailed submission to Hatch by Friday 26th March which we did. We are very concerned that it is only after submissions are closed we discovered that the baseline scenario does not include a prohibition as stated by the Minister.
"Belcoo Frack Free is deeply concerned that the Minister does not appear to be in control of her brief. DfE refused all attempts by stakeholders to give input to the terms of reference to this research. The research is very tightly controlled so there is no excuse for the Department or the Minister not knowing exactly what is in scope. We have to question whether this is a very deliberate statement, especially as the Minister re-states a second time in her answer to that same question that the report will include 'a baseline scenario of no exploration and development'."
"On 13th October 2020, the Assembly passed a motion calling for a moratorium on petroleum licensing whilst a permanent legislative prohibition was introduced. The Minister referring to the Hatch study stated 'this research is designed to help to inform the evidence on which we can base our future petroleum licensing policy'.
"One has to ask the question how that future policy will be developed if the positive impacts on climate, on public health, physical health, mental health, on the environment, on social cohesion, on our indigenous industries such as tourism and agriculture from a prohibition on petroleum licensing are not being assessed.
"From the start, we had grave reservations over the manner in which this research has come about. It now appears clear that the Department wishes to bring in a 'Trojan horse' report, even if it requires misleading the Assembly in order to achieve it.
"If
it is confirmed that the Minister and her Departmental officials have
misled the Assembly then they must be censured. An investigation needs
conducted into this research by the Assembly Economy Committee. As a
start to that, all documents pertaining to this research, from its very start as an internal project
in February of 2019 need to be made public."
ENDS
