Dail Report: Bringing the Corrib field gas ashore is an "incredible opportunity" to balance regional development, Minister for Rural and Gaeltacht affairs Éamon Ó Cuív told the Dáil.
In a debate on a Private Members' motion over Ireland's natural resources, which focused on the row surrounding the development of the Shell gas pipeline, he also welcomed the decision by Minister for Natural Resources Noel Dempsey to put the issue of safety "under the Commission for Energy Regulation".
The Private Members' motion, brought by Independent TDs and supported by all Opposition parties including Fine Gael, was defeated by 61 to 55 votes.
It called for "recognition of the fundamental principle that oil and gas reserves within the control of the State belong to the Irish people and must be recovered and used in a way that benefits the great majority of the population rather than powerful interests".
The motion also called for the re-introduction of a "realistic tax take, with royalties and an automatic stake of 50 per cent in any oil or gas discovery". And it demanded a "complete freeze on the issuing of any further exploration licences pending proper consultation with the Irish people".
Mr Ó Cuív said that with the responsibility for safety going to the Commission for Energy Regulation "people will now know that somebody independent has made a judgment in terms of relative safety".
Describing the bringing ashore of the Corrib field gas as "an incredible opportunity to balance regional development", he said he had been concerned that the gas would be of little direct benefit to the people of the west. The pipeline, he said, "is a piece of infrastructure that could be used as a main backbone for distribution". Based on advice he had received from the Western Development Commission, strategic changes would mean many towns in the west, particularly in Mayo, would be connected.
Green Party leader Trevor Sargent said the pipeline would be less than 70m from the family home of one of the "Rossport five". "Naturally there was going to be enormous resistance and rightly so to people being taken for granted and having their lives put in jeopardy in this fashion," he said.
He also questioned the behaviour of Fianna Fáil, "with particular reference to Ray Burke, in its role as oil company agent. Deputy [ Frank] Fahey also needs to answer a few questions. . . the people of Mayo will not let this rest."
Fine Gael's spokesman on natural resources Bernard Durkan called for the energy industry to be dealt with "in a professional manner" so "we do not have a repeat of the daft situation that has arisen over the Corrib gas field".
Independent TD Tony Gregory (Dublin Central) said the country's natural resources were "being handed over free gratis to the multinational oil companies". It was a "scandal of immense proportions" and showed the failure of the main parties "in successive governments to safeguard our natural resources for the benefit of. . . the Irish people".
