MAYO FINE Gael TD Michael Ring and Labour Party president Michael D Higgins have called on the Government and Shell to respond positively to a compromise proposed by north Mayo residents involved in the Corrib gas dispute.
This follows yesterday’s statement issued by Rossport residents of the Kilcommon parish in which a demand for a gas refinery at sea has been dropped. The statement issued by seven community leaders in Erris says that all of the problems surrounding the Bellanaboy refinery site and its controversial onshore high-pressure pipeline could be “solved in one move”.
This would happen if the developers – Shell, Statoil and Marathon – agreed to relocate the refinery from its current inshore location at Bellanaboy to a coastal location, which does not require a long high-pressure pipeline onshore and is away from a public drinking water supply.
The seven – Mary and Willie Corduff, Philip and Vincent McGrath, PJ Moran, Pat O’Donnell, Caitlín Uí Sheighin – were all key supporters of the Mayo Shell to Sea campaign. It was formed after Mr Corduff, Philip and Vincent McGrath, Mícheál Ó Seighin and Brendan Philbin were jailed for 94 days over opposition to the pipeline in 2005.
“The conflict has always been capable of being resolved by agreement and respect, and we call on all genuinely interested parties to respond positively to this move”, the statement says. “Failure to do so would inevitably see the situation revert to compulsory land acquisition, court orders, court cases, conflict, and more suffering and trauma for our families, neighbours and community.”
Michael Ring said he welcomed the statement, which was “a move in the right direction”. He appealed to Shell EP Ireland to “sit down and talk – but only if it is prepared also for compromise”.
Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan should also recognise this opportunity, Mr Ring said.
Michael D Higgins said that “a very genuine effort was being made by the community to restore peace in the area and get on with their lives”.
“This deserves an immediate and generous response, and I believe the Minister, Mr Ryan, and his officials should not let this opportunity be lost”, he said.
Mr Higgins was one of three politicians — along with Green Party councillor Niall Ó Brolcháin and Sinn Féin councillor Noel Campbell — who travelled to Norway earlier this month with the seven signatories to the statement.
The group met politicians, union leaders and representatives of StatoilHydro, a partner in the Corrib project, in a bid to break the current impasse.
Shell EP Ireland said yesterday that it had “no response” to the statement. The current refinery project at Bellanaboy, which involves a 9km linking onshore pipeline, is about 30 per cent complete.
However, the developers are preparing to seek planning and other statutory approvals for a modified pipeline route, linking the gas field at sea to the inland refinery.
This modified route will require the approval of Government Ministers, including Mr Ryan, and also of Bord Pleanála, if the appeals board accepts it under the Strategic Infrastructure Act.
However, it encroaches on several Special Areas of Conservation and the developers also plan to issue compulsory acquisition orders to cross private land and commonage.
The community leaders say they support the compromise alternative location proposed by three priests in Kilcommon parish, Frs Michael Nallen, Michael Gilroy and Seán Noone in letters last year to Mr Ryan.
This location at Glinsk, near Belderrig, was identified by Shell consultants RPS last summer as a potential landfall during initial work on modifying onshore pipeline routes.
However, the consultants were excluded from involvement in any aspect of the refinery,then under construction, and dropped this option from subsequent short-lists. Glinsk has no housing within several miles of the exposed area of bogland, but Shell consultants had noted in their assessment for the pipeline survey that the exposed landfall had steep cliffs of greater than 50 metres.