A chara, - I would welcome the opportunity to comment on your report, "Objectors holding up progress in West - Fahey" (The Irish Times, August 24th).
I exercised my right as a native of Erris and as a citizen of this benighted democracy of ours to object to Mayo County Council with regard to the planning application by Enterprise Energy Ireland (EEI) for a gas reception and treatment terminal at Ballinaboy. I will continue to exercise that right by appealing the county council's decision to An Bord Pleanβla. In doing so, I will not be gainsaid by the Orwellian utterances of Government ministers.
As a teacher, I do not accept bullying in any guise - that includes the implication by Frank Fahey, TD, that by objecting to the proposed EEI gas terminal I am responsible for holding up infrastructural development in the West. I'm not.
In the Friday Interview (The Irish Times, June 29th), Gerry Walsh, chief executive of Bord Gβis, said the following about the provision of Corrib Gas to the North West region: "We've looked at it and we find we can't do it economically. We're a commercial State company and our mandate is to do things on a commercial basis. We're precluded in our legislation from doing anything that doesn't give us a return."
Your coverage of the International Humbert School has the following obfuscational gem from Peter O'Neill, head of the Department of Public Enterprise gas division: "The Corrib Field was a catalyst for the roll-out of energy infrastructure in the West."
What is he trying to say - or, more to the point, what is he trying not to admit? The Erris region is a discrete entity, rich in the resources that money can't buy - clean air, clean water, sight of the night sky, a sense of place and continuity. Those of us objecting to the reckless location of the EEI terminal at Erris are not indulging in any form of dilettante "nimbyism". Erris is too precious a resource to be compromised by a combination of corporate expediency and Government re-election strategems.
Eileen Battersby, writing in your paper last May, said in relation to heritage: "Hindsight may make for lofty regret but it is ultimately pointless." I will continue to object to this planning application by EEI to ensure that the above remark will never be applicable to Erris. - Is mise,
Maura Harrington, Doohoma, Ballina, Co Mayo.
