THE DEPARTMENT of the Environment has confirmed it has given preliminary approval for a foreshore licence to build ship-landing and other facilities for the country’s first liquefied gas terminal on the Shannon estuary.
However, a spokesman for the department said legal details of the licence for the jetty and other shore facilities for the proposed plant between Tarbert and Ballylongford in Co Kerry have yet to be finalised. It may be a number of weeks before this is complete.
The foreshore application was made more than two years ago, and there has been some local anxiety about the length of time taken. It is four years since the project was unveiled, and almost three years since it was deemed strategic infrastructure and eligible for fast-track planning.
Ships from all over the world will call at the terminal with liquefied gas, which will be offloaded, regassified and put into the national gas network.
The foreshore licence is the last piece of the jigsaw in the proposal by Shannon LNG, an Irish subsidiary of the global Hess corporation, to construct the terminal.
Since it was unveiled in 2006 and among the first projects to be “fast-tracked” under the Strategic Infrastructure Act, there have been two oral hearings by An Bord Pleanála – one into the terminal itself and another into a 26km pipeline linking the import terminal with the national gas grid near Foynes. Both got the go-ahead.
The €500 million facility will mean a boost for north Kerry. Endesa, a Spanish energy company, is proposing to construct a natural gas-powered electricity station on an ESB site at nearby Tarbert island, with gas supplies coming from the new LNG plant.
An oral hearing into the Endesa proposal is taking place this week.