Efforts to mediate in the dispute between Shell and objectors to the company's plan to build a gas pipeline in Co Mayo have collapsed.
After seven months of talks, mediator Peter Cassells today said there had been no agreement and that he was now compiling a report containing recommendations on how to proceed.
Mr Cassells, a former Ictu general secretary, said he will send his report to Shell, the objectors and Minister for Natural Resources Noel Dempsey in the next two weeks.
He was appointed as part of efforts to resolve a dispute that led to five people affected by the onshore routing of the pipeline going to jail for 94 days.
The so-called Rossport Five were jailed for refusing to give a commitment they would honour a High Court order preventing them from interfering with work on the pipeline.
The objectors had previously blocked work by protesting at sites along the nine-kilometre route from Bellanaboy, where the gas is due to be brought ashore from the Corrib gas field, to Rossport.
The objectors' primary concerns are that the pipe is routed too close to their homes, is built on unstable ground, and that gas will be pumped through at a dangerously high pressure.
They believe these conditions increased the likelihood of an explosion in which they would be killed.
After a series of engineers' reports and new requirements demanded of Shell the project was given the go-ahead by the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources.
When Mr Cassells was appointed last March he said the objective of the mediation was to "reconcile the two interests of bringing the gas in the Corrib gasfield to market and ensuring safety".
Today he said that talks between the parties - including consultations with the local community - had not yielded a resolution.
"I have also concluded, given the different positions on the project and the different approaches to mediation, that no agreement is likely in the foreseeable future," Mr Cassells said.
He asked that the parties "give serious consideration" to his recommendations which deal with:
- safety concerns regarding the operation of the pipeline;
- the route of the pipeline and its proximity to local houses;
- financial compensation for landowners on the pipeline route;
- the terminal, including environmental concerns;
- improved benefits for the local people and the region;
- monitoring of the project and consultations with local people
A spokesman for the Rossport 5 said Shell's only concern was the financial and technical aspects of the project.
"They have been blind to the impact that their project will have on the communities that will be effected and deaf to the consistent message from those communities that this project does not have their consent," the spokesman said.
He also denied Shell's consistent claim that opposition to the project was confined to a small number of landowners.
"The Corrib gas project in its present configuration has run its course. It cannot now proceed other than through compulsion and force," the spokesman added.
Shell said it was disappointed that the mediation process failed. The company said it was willing to continue dialogue with objectors that would include discussing the possibility of re-routing the pipeline.
Managing director Andy Pyle said he was disappointed that, during the process, the objectors refused to meet the company in person.
He noted the company had voluntarily stopped work on the project while mediation took place, and he accused the protesters of making unreasonable demands.
"We firmly believe that a compromise solution acceptable to the local community can still be found," Mr Pyle said.
Sinn Féin's Martin Ferris said he was not surprised by the failure of mediation.
He said the only way to resolve the dispute was for the Government to take instruct Shell to move the pipeline and refinery offshore.
He also criticised the deal which gave Shell, which heads a consortium which involves Statoil, drilling rights in Corrib field. "It is estimated that Corrib gas alone is worth between €12 billion and €21 billion, which is over twice the size of the government's entire health budget," Mr Ferris said.