The Government and the Northern Executive have approved plans for a multi-million pound cross-Border gas pipeline running from Co Meath through the North and into Co Donegal.
Announcing the project yesterday, the North's Minister for Trade Enterprise and Investment, Sir Reg Empey, said it would make natural gas available to 77 per cent of the North's population.
The pipeline will also open the way for the building of a new £250 million sterling ($398 million) power station at Coolekeeragh, Co Derry. The power station, being built by a consortium including ESB International and British Gas will provide electricity to consumers on both sides of the border.
The pipeline will run from Gormanstown, Co Meath, to Co Antrim where it will connect with a pipeline running from Belfast to Derry city. The Government will pay £10 million (€12.7 million)towards the project which will receive up to £38 million sterling in grant aid. From Derry the pipeline will be extended to Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
Companies in major towns along the path of the pipeline such as Newry, Craigavon, Ballymoney, Antrim, Limavady and Derry itself will be able to distribute the gas but Sir Reg said he could not say exactly when this might begin as it would depend on the level of interest expressed by the private sector.
Sir Reg, joined at the project's launch in Newry, Co Down, by the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, and the Executive Finance Minister, Mr Mark Durkan, said the pipeline would have to be complete as far as Derry by late 2004 to provide fuel for the proposed Coolkeragh power station.
Ms O'Rourke said the project was a potent symbol of the practical co-operation possible between North and South.
The Government also confirmed yesterday that it had given the go-ahead for a new examination of the costs of building a pipeline to bring natural gas from the Corrib Field off Co Mayo to Sligo via Ballina. But funding for the project, which would cost in the region of £20 million, has yet to be approved.
A feasibility study commissioned by Bord Gβis Eireann found the Sligo extension would not be viable on the basis of anticipated gas demand.
But detailed costings will now be sought on the basis of "the wider regional and socio-economic benefits" involved.
The question of whether Sligo and the north-west would get any benefit from the gas find off Co Mayo has proved contentious and could become an election issue.
