The Minister for the Marine's Corrib gas technical advisory group has confirmed that objections sent to the Minister's department before it was established may not have been passed on to it.
Bob Hanna, chairman of the advisory group, told yesterday's public hearing on the onshore gas pipeline that any submissions sent to it after August 10th of this year were being considered.
However, submissions sent before this date to the department's petroleum affairs division or any other division may not have all been passed on, he said.
Mr Hanna, chief technical advisor for energy with the Minister's department, was responding to Eamonn Diver of the Erris Inshore Fishermen's Association, who said the consultation procedure was "very confused".
His association had made submissions outlining concerns about aspects of the Corrib gas project four years ago, but these concerns had not been heard, Mr Diver said.
Referring to a "packed" public meeting in the same venue four years before, which was hosted by former marine minister Frank Fahey, Mr Diver said the fact that the same hall was "half-empty" yesterday was no reflection on the views and serious concerns of the Erris community.
The fishermen had "compromised to the point of capitulation" in relation to Shell's plans for aspects of the project, but believed now that the preferred option was a shallow-water platform to refine the gas, Mr Diver said.
"We would like to support what Dr Mark Garavan has stated - that this Government needs to take charge of this project," Mr Diver said.
Peter Sweetman, environmentalist and resident, submitted a report to the hearing by a consultant for An Taisce, civil engineer Leo Corcoran, which identified serious flaws in the pipeline design.
Mr Corcoran's analysis of available material relating to the pipeline found the minimum proximity distance of 70 metres to buildings, as specified by the developer and the Minister in his letter of consent, was not in line with best practice in gas pipeline standards and codes of practice.
A retired US navy engineer, David Aldridge, also presented calculations carried out by him that a pipeline explosion would release the equivalent of 3,500 tonnes of TNT energy.
This would mean that anything within 250 yards of the pipeline would be destroyed in the event of a leak, anyone within a mile would be killed and anybody within 1.6 miles would be irreparably injured.
