A chara, – Two letters appear today (May 11th) in connection with the Corrib gas project and both contain many inaccuracies which must be addressed.
Vincent McGrath states that there is no planning permission for works at Glengad, and that an application is currently before An Bord Pleanála. This is either deliberately misleading or a misunderstanding of the true position. The works being undertaken at Glengad are licensed under a 2002 consent, and Minister for Energy, Eamon Ryan has made this clear, as it has been through all processes.
This may be confused with an application under the Strategic Infrastructure Act for onshore section of pipeline through Rossport to replace an original legally sanctioned one which was no less than 70 metres from the nearest house. Despite the fact that it was deemed safe by independent experts Advantica, it has been decided to move it 140 metres from nearest house – in the Netherlands the nearest is five metres.
Bob Wilson, sometimes visitor here from Clare, writes that he is not opposed to bringing in the gas, only that a safe way must be found to do so. That exactly is what is being done and the project complies with the best international technological standards, and the old canard about drinking water being polluted was blown away by an expert at a meeting of the NW Mayo Forum in Belmullet last February.
In the past month over 1,000 people were working on the project, and in those recessionary times, Erris and Belmullet are booming. Mr Wilson states that the Bellanaboy site should be abandoned and left as a centre of excellence and a tourist attraction. It is indeed both but must be used for its designed purpose. To do otherwise would be to erect a monument to anarchy and all that implies.
Ministers Eamon Ó Cuiv and Eamon Ryan are correct to say that they cannot legally stop the works. Anyone who feels this is not correct have recourse to law and the courts. – Is mise,
BRENDAN CAFFERTY,
(Pro Gas Mayo)
Ballina,
Co Mayo.
Madam, – Are any of the nation’s newspapers curious about what actually happened in Rossport the night Willie Corduff was hospitalised? Is it good enough to repeat ad nauseam contradictory Garda statements?
Anyone reading the mysterious tale of the masked men who vandalised the site, and the subsequent “precautionary” hospitalisation of Mr Corduff will be left no wiser.
Certain disjointed reporting of the situation appears to be a result of publishing unedited Garda briefings without context, and actually does no favours for the image of the force. – Yours, etc,