The Minister for the Marine, Mr Fahey, has said he is "absolutely confident" a gas pipeline to Sligo from the Corrib Field will go ahead although he accepted that the Government had not yet given any specific financial commitment to the project.
He said a Government decision last week meant detailed engineering and planning work would be carried out to establish costing for the pipeline.
"It will then go back to Government for final approval, but I am quite satisfied the funding will be forthcoming," he said.
Mr Fahey said it was not known at this stage how long this planning work would take or when the level of funding required would be known. He said the Government could not have given final approval for the pipeline until the costing was done.
The Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, last week announced Government support for a cross-Border gas interconnector running from Co Meath through the North and into Co Donegal. She also announced a decision "to move ahead with the next step in extending the gas transmission system to Sligo via Ballina".
Ms O'Rourke said the Government was making £10 million available but all was for the cross-Border interconnection. There was some concern that the announcement on the Sligo line fell short of a final commitment and that no start date was given.
Mr Fahey yesterday accused opposition politicians of "grossly misleading people" by implying it was possible to get gas delivered everywhere at the same time. He said he had been making the case for "the west and north-west to be treated equally with the rest of the country".
Last week's announcement means Letterkenny will get natural gas once a pipeline is built between Belfast and Derry. There is a definite timescale for this project because a new gas-fired power station outside Derry, which is part-owned by the ESB, has to be completed by 2004.
The President of Letterkenny Chamber of Commerce, Mr Jack O'Herlihy, said this week he expected the pipeline to Letterkenny to be completed even before then. He said the project was an example of how the Border could be used to the advantage of the whole north-west region. The cross-Border aspect meant EU funding could be accessed.
He said the work North and South had to be treated as one project and the chamber would look for the "seamless implementation" of last week's decision.