Debate contribution: Ban Petroleum Licensing and Fracking

Debate contribution by Mr Phillip Brett on 29 April 2024.

MLA

Mr Phillip Brett

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

29 April 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Ban Petroleum Licensing and Fracking

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4486593

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Madam Principal Deputy Speaker, I speak in my role as DUP economy spokesperson. The Committee has not yet considered this matter, so it would not be appropriate for me to speak with any authority on the issue on behalf of the Committee. The DUP supports the motion. I disagree with the previous Member who spoke, although I respect her, in her comments that the DUP has done nothing on this issue since holding the Economy portfolio. Later in her speech, she went on to recognise that Minister Lyons had submitted a paper to the Executive, and she outlined what that paper stated. Given that it was a cross-cutting and controversial issue, it required Executive approval. To build on that, the former Economy Minister Diane Dodds placed a moratorium on the granting of licensing for exploration. As the Member who spoke previously pointed out, Minister Lyons submitted a paper to the Executive. That paper stated:

"there is no strong economic case to support the exploration for and possible production of any potential onshore oil and gas resources in NI. Such a course of action also runs contrary to the objectives of the NI Energy Strategy and targets in the Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022."

We need to inject some realism into the debate. There are no current active petroleum licences in Northern Ireland. Saying that a moratorium and legislative ban on an activity that is not happening in Northern Ireland will be the silver bullet to the issues that we face is simply not true. Whether we like it or not, two thirds of homes across Northern Ireland are still heated by oil. That can change only if we support householders to go green in a way that is affordable and accessible. That is where the focus of the motion and, hopefully, the Minister's response, should be. I want to hear, as, I am sure, do hard-pressed households across Northern Ireland, when the Minister will bring forward a support scheme to help those householders make the transition to renewables. There is no point in we in the House saying what we cannot do. We need to be able to articulate to the public what we can do and how we are going to support families and households in doing that. Yes, warm words from across the House are important, but they are meaningless unless we offer an affordable and accessible alternative for households across Northern Ireland. I trust that the Minister will outline in his summing-up how he plans to swiftly bring forward a strategy to enable households to make the transition to renewable energy as a means of heating their homes. Ongoing delay in that will further undermine Northern Ireland's ability to meet the climate change targets that the House set in the previous mandate. We will support the motion, but we need more than words. We need action, and I look forward to hearing from the Minister how he plans to actually tackle ensuring that householders across Northern Ireland are able to transition from fossil fuels and how he intends to support them.

515 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:20 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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