The North Western Regional Fisheries Board has taken issue with a claim by Shell E&P Ireland that it is involved in a Shell-funded upgrade of a river in north Mayo.
Vincent Roche, chief executive of the fisheries board, has said his board "neither sought nor received any funds from Shell in respect of the Glenamoy river or any other project".
The board was responding to an announcement by the Corrib gas developers in Mayo earlier this week that they had made a contribution of €130,000 towards upgrading the salmonid fishery with the fisheries board and a local angling association.
This "further investment in the local community" was "in advance of the establishment of an independent fund in 2008", as recommended last year by Government mediator Peter Cassells, the developers said.
Shell E&P Ireland deputy managing director, Terry Nolan, said in the statement that "we are proud to be associated with the Glenamoy Community Angling Association and the North West Regional Fisheries Board, as well as the many other sports clubs and voluntary organisations that we support".
Mr Roche said his board understood that a development project was carried out by the community angling association with financial support from Shell.
The fisheries board had "provided technical advice and direction" under its statutory remit, but no funds were provided by Shell "in respect of the board's input", Mr Roche said in a statement.
The board was carrying out a separate fisheries development project on a spawning/nursery tributary of the river, and Mr Roche said it "wishes to make it clear that Shell is not in any way involved in the board project".
The board has had its issues in the past with the Corrib gas project, and in June 2005 it issued Shell E&P Ireland with a warning of legal action if discharges of silt into the Bellanaboy river continued.
