The Government must instruct Bord Gais to build a pipeline from Dublin to Sligo to ensure that all regions of the State benefit from natural gas found off Co Mayo, the Council for the West has said.
The lobby group, which campaigns for western development, responded angrily to board's refusal to consider its proposal to build a pipeline to the northwest.
Dr Seamus Caulfield unveiled the proposal at a seminar in Knock on Wednesday, arguing that it would cost just an additional u40 £40 million for Bord Gais to drop plans to build a pipeline from Dublin and Galway and instead run the "ring main" through Sligo and Crossmolina to connect with the Corrib gas find.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has announced that a pipeline is to be built from Pollatomish, Co Mayo, to Craughwell, Co Galway.
Dr Caulfield said it was misleading for Bord Gais to talk about bringing gas to the west of Ireland when what it was planning to do was take gas out of the west.
In a statement yesterday, the chairwoman of the Council for the West, Ms Marian Harkin, said it was now up to the Government to instruct Bord Gais to build the pipeline to the northwest if it was serious about its policy of balanced regional development.
"We have two State bodies contradicting one another. Bord Gais is telling us to attract the industry and then we'll get the gas. But the IDA has been saying for years that they cannot bring in industry without infrastructure," she said.
Ms Harkin said the additional £40 million needed to build the Sligo-Crossmolina line was a very small sum and there was now an argument for the National Development Plan to be reviewed, given that there was no allocation included for gas infrastructure.
"It will be a nightmare scenario if this region gets no benefit from natural resources off our coast," Ms Harkin said.
It did not make sense to close Bellacorick power station in Co Mayo, as is planned, and then pump natural gas from Mayo to the midlands to generate electricity, she said.
"We have to get as much infrastructure as we can now when the money is available. There is no point in Bord Gais saying it will look at the possibility of putting in spurs in the future. As a State body it has a responsibility to supply gas to all of the country and not just the east and south," she added.
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