Sir, - Thank you for the sympathetic report on the closure of Warner's factory in Belmullet with the loss of 114 jobs (The Irish Times, August 2nd). Belmullet is the principal town of the Erris Peninsula, which is part of Co Mayo. Erris is about the same size as Co Louth, and is in the Diocese of Killala. After the publication of the National Development Plan in November 1999, the people of Erris participated in a diocesan audit conducted on a parish by parish basis. The parish community was found to be an ideal unit size in which people could take stock of where they had come from, where they were now, and where they would like to be at the end of 2006.
The findings of the audit were published in March 2000 (Out of the West, April 10th). There was no word then of the closure of Warner's. Indeed, a new ray of hope had recently come from an oil rig off the Erris Peninsula. What Enterprise Oil found was not oil but high-grade gas ready to be piped ashore at Pullathomais, a short distance from Belmullet. The benefits to the region of this new energy source featured prominently in the Erris parish reports and in media coverage throughout the North-West. For example, the peat-fired ESB station at Bellacorick, due to close by 2004, could now be replaced by a new gas-fired electricity generating station.
In mid-July, however, came your headline, "Western Commission set for clash with Government over gas find" (The Irish Times, July 17th). The commission in question was the Western Development Commission (WDC) which was established on a statutory basis in response to the Western Bishops' Crusade for Survival. What the WDC objected to was a proposal from the Department of Public Enterprise to apply a "free market situation" to the construction of pipeline routes linked to the Corrib gas find. Such a laissez-faire approach would lead to a concentration on large urban markets. New legislation to regulate the gas industry should ensure that less populated areas benefited from this new energy source, said the WDC. At a recent meeting of the Border, Midlands and West (BMW) Assembly, the chairperson, commenting on the Department's proposal, said: "If we're disadvantaged, then the disparity between our region and the East Coast will be greater. A solid infrastructural grid, including gas, is the only way we can remove the disadvantage". On August 9th this headline appeared in the Western People:
"Advisers say No to Mayo gas benefits". The story referred to a report prepared for the Government by the London office of the US consultants Brattle. The report ruled out the possibility that towns in Mayo would benefit from the Corrib gas field; it also ruled out the proposal to use gas to replace the peat-fired power station in Bellacorick.
I have not seen this report but I have seen enough to ask this question. Have the consultants taken account of the following factors: Bellacorick power station employs (between the ESB and Bord na Mona) 170 full-time and 130 part-time workers. Bellacorick, Belmullet and the rest of Co Mayo is now in the BMW region which has Objective One status; this demands greater investment in infrastructure and allows for a higher level of grant aid to attract industries to locate in the region. Accordingly, the Government must now ensure that the infrastructure, both legal and physical, needed to make Mayo gas available in Mayo is put in place immediately. - Yours, etc.,
Thomas A. Finnegan, Bishop of Killala, Ballina, Co Mayo.