This year Fermanagh goes to the polls. The election for councillors for the new amalgamated Fermanagh and Omagh Council is set for May, as is the poll for representatives in Europe.

Could we in Fermanagh be facing the prospect of giving our opinion at the ballot box on another issue?

It just may happen. On Monday night Fermanagh District Council agreed to an unprecedented course of action -- to hold a referendum in this county on fracking, the process of hydraulic fracturing by which energy companies extract shale gas from underground.

Its proposer Sinn Fein’s Barry Doherty believes the decision to hold a poll will mean the out-going Fermanagh District Council must decide whether to “go out with a whimper or go out with a bang”.

Already his proposal has received cross-party support. It is now the practicalities that must be considered, aside from any legalities that must be examined that no doubt have had councillors looking up the finer detail of the Local Government Act.

Mr. Doherty believes that the referendum would cost up to £30,000. It will be up to ratepayers to decide if this represents good value.

What it would do would allow all the people of the area to give their thoughts on an issue that has caused concern groups to form and meet and protest.

However, the caveat exists that no matter if Fermanagh says yes or no to fracking, the results of the referendum would have moral and not legal implications. “My understanding is that with a local referendum decision makers have to take it into account. They don’t have to be swayed by it, but at least take it into account,” Mr. Doherty said.

Of course referenda are not an uncommon feature of the electoral landscape. The one that stands out was the referendum for the Good Friday Agreement. Perhaps less memorable was the 2011 poll to determine voters’ views on replacing the first past the post system for MPs with an alterative vote in 2011.

Time will tell whether this Fermanagh referendum will happen and just how it will be viewed.