The Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Fahey, has moved to assuage environmental concerns over the Corrib gas field in north Mayo.
In a statement on the eve of a debate last month in Erris on the benefits of the gas field, the Minister promised "robust procedures" would be applied to environmental impact assessments of the development. He intends to host a seminar late this month at which senior Department managers involved in the assessments will "spell out publicly" these procedures.
Developers EEI recently submitted a revised planning and foreshore licence application for the subsea structure, pipeline and gas terminal onshore, and Mayo County Council's planning department has sought additional information. However, the company has been accused of arrogance by the organisers of the debate, held in Geesala, north Mayo, on June 23rd, on the implications of the Corrib gas field exploitation.
EEI declined an invitation to attend the debate at the fourth annual Ken SaroWiwa Memorial Seminar in Teach Iorrais, Geesala. Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged by the Nigerian government following his opposition to the activities of the Royal Dutch Shell oil company on lands inhabited by the Ogoni people.
A spokesman for EEI said it did not consider it would be appropriate to attend the seminar when the planning applications were still in train. He also said that it was outrageous to link the company to the Ken Saro-Wiwa affair which had been horrific. It would be misleading to link EEI to this, and the organisers of the seminar should have invited someone from Shell, he said. Mr Padraic Breathnach, founder of the Macnas theatre company, who chaired the debate, criticised EEI's decision to stay away.
The Department of the Marine and Natural Resources was represented by Mr Michael Daly, principal officer of the petroleum affairs division. He stressed that all assessments were in accordance with Irish and EU law, and included "modern and public" environmental safeguards. He confirmed that work on legislative change was proceeding to enable the Minister to give EEI access to some eight kilometres of land linking the landfall at Rossport to the terminal at Bellanaboy Bridge.
A spokesman for the Minister confirmed that the 1960 Petroleum and Other Minerals Development Act allowed him to acquire compulsorily ancillary rights, including way leave, but the Act did not allow for oral hearings. The Minister preferred to rely on the 1976 Gas Act, which allowed him to make acquisition orders for compulsory purchase, but which also provided for oral hearings.
The Minister was not currently party to the Gas Act, and the legislative amendment was to permit him to take over this function from the Minister for Public Enterprise. The decision to make compulsory purchase orders was still a matter for the Minister, and it was for the company to apply to administer it, the spokesman said.
At the seminar, economist Richard Douthwaite questioned the wisdom of bringing gas ashore from the Corrib field at all. He said it should be kept as a strategic reserve for about 20 years, by which time the world gas reserves would begin to fall off dramatically.
Mr Douthwaite asked if it was worth sacrificing a site in Broadhaven Bay for the equivalent of 20 days' gas supply in Europe. He said there were many applications for wind farms in the area. He questioned the wisdom of burning gas for electricity as is proposed by a company which plans to site a gas-generating station at Bellacorick in north Mayo.
Mr Douthwaite warned that gas production would peak in 2020 and would then fall off dramatically. What was this State doing about global warming, he asked. Mr Padraig Campbell, a former oil rig worker who is SIPTU's national oil and gas committee spokesman, said that because the company had the best tax deal in the world, the highly lucrative jobs, goods and services should come to Ireland. The State seemed to be focusing on pipeline routes as "political goodies". There was no firm evidence that towns would get the gas, he said.
"It doesn't matter where we get the gas from. We will be buying it back. We might as well be getting it in a gas tank from Venezuela." Mr Campbell said that very little of the £1 billion which would be spent developing the gas find would come back to Ireland. He called for a Norwegian mentality, if Ireland was to avoid becoming just "the filling station of Europe".
"The oil industry now has the raw material, means of production, distribution and markets under their control and Ireland is out of the equation," Mr Campbell said.
The jobs opportunities on the onshore aspects of the Corrib field for Irish companies were outlined last month at a conference sponsored by the State agency, Enterprise Ireland, in Ballina, Co Mayo.
RTE television's Prime Time programme is to transmit a special report on Ireland's offshore hydrocarbon resources this Thursday, July 5th, at 9.30 p.m.