The Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources says that it has inspected the north Mayo beach which is at the centre of a row over work on the Corrib gas field terminal.
The Department's environmental monitoring group for the Corrib project visited the beach at Glengad a week ago, following a meeting in Geesala. A spokesman says that it noted the work being carried out under the project's environmental management plan.
It was also briefed by Enterprise Energy Ireland, now owned by Shell, on work completed both offshore and onshore last month.
A Department spokesman said that it had not raised any concerns about the work on the beach, which was under the terms of the foreshore legislation.
Last week, the Socialist Party TD, Mr Joe Higgins, called on the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Ahern, to halt the pipe-excavation work being carried out by Shell Oil on the beach.
He described the work on the upstream pipeline as being "in breach of the spirit of An Bord Pleanála's decision of June 21st" on the project.
In that decision, the appeals board was highly critical of the planning application for the proposed terminal at Bellanaboy Bridge and requested Enterprise Energy Ireland to provide more information. It also asked the company to consider alternative sites for processing the raw gas from the Corrib field off the Mayo coast.
The company said last week that the work at Glengad was "modest". However, Mr Higgins said that a massive tonnage of rock, silt and beach materials was being dumped offshore, causing great risk to the ecological balance in the area.
Yesterday, the Department said that the environmental monitoring group observed the completion of an access road and a cut through the cliff at Glengad. It reported that 70 per cent of the pipeline trench had been excavated. Discussions were "ongoing" with Dúchas, the Heritage Service, and the Department about this work.
