Background: Issue may be back before the courts very shortly, writes Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent
Five Mayo men and their relatives celebrated victory outside the High Court yesterday, but warned that the battle over the Corrib gas onshore pipeline was "only starting".
The issue may be back before the courts very shortly as Shell says it intends to pursue its case for a permanent injunction against any opponents of the onshore gas pipeline.
However, it has also been summoned to court to explain its breach of ministerial consents for the pipeline, and there is the outstanding issue of punitive damages.
Even as the legal wrangling continues, the two parties have been invited to participate in mediation by Minister for the Marine Noel Dempsey, and a public consultation is being held on October 12th and 13th as part of the Minister's new safety review, which is expected to be complete by mid-November.
"It's a bizarre scenario," Dr Mark Garavan, spokesman for the five men, acknowledged.
"Here we will have three processes running along parallel tracks, when in fact the simplest thing to do would be to go back to basics, and conduct an entire review of the project. It is already running two years behind schedule, so why not just start again and do it right?"
Micheál Ó Seighin, one of the five men who had spent 94 days in prison, speaking to The Irish Times after yesterday's court hearing, said it was time "to go back to the drawing board and do this properly".
"It's what I said to former marine minister Frank Fahey in 2001, and I would say it to Minister for Marine Dempsey now," Mr Ó Seighin, a retired schoolteacher, said. "We're not telling a commercial company how to do their job, we're just asking that it be done properly, and if so we will co-operate."
Mr Ó Seighin and Dr Garavan believe there is scope for such a comprehensive review in the mediation discussions, which are expected to begin in some days. At the same time, the men and their supporters are resolute.
The Minister told a joint Oireachtas committee earlier this week that an illegally-welded section of pipeline would be dismantled by the company.
Shell has been coy about explaining why it took so long to collapse the temporary injunction which had held the men in prison for 94 days, while insisting that it was not put under any pressure by one of its two Corrib partners, Statoil.
A key factor was the timing of the Minister's safety review, a company spokesman said yesterday.
"We have already suspended all onshore work while this review is being carried out, and once it became clear that the review wouldn't be ready till late October, we knew that the temporary injunction wouldn't be necessary. We are into a period when no work is being carried out anyway due to weather conditions."
Until late this week the company had been insisting that it could not withdraw the injunction as this would prejudice its legal action later - even though precedents to the contrary had been presented to it by Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte and Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny. Senior Statoil representatives were in Ireland this week, but Shell says that Corrib partner meetings are a "regular event".
The Statoil visit came just days after a visit to Norway by Mr Ó Seighin's wife, Caitlin, other family representatives and Mayo TD Dr Jerry Cowley (Ind), all travelling at their own expense. Dr Cowley believes this visit represented a turning point. Not only did the group meet members of the incoming Norwegian government, but also senior union officials representing Statoil workers.
"We told Statoil in no uncertain terms that Shell was resorting in north Mayo to the tactics it had already used in Nigeria. We told them that Shell was giving Statoil, which is mainly owned by the Norwegian people, a very bad name," Dr Cowley said.
Fine Gael TD for Mayo Michael Ring, who has welcomed the men's release, says there are serious questions to be answered about the Government's role in the whole debacle. Corrib is on the agenda for Tuesday's Dáil session, but Mr Ring wants a full debate rather than statements.
"I want to pursue the role of Frank Fahey in signing compulsory acquisition orders giving a private company a wayleave through these people's lands for this unsafe pipeline, and I also want to know why Coillte sold 400 acres to Shell for its terminal at a price that has never been disclosed," he said.