Multinational oil company Shell today defended its plan for an onshore pipeline in north Co Mayo as protesters joined by the Green Party claimed the proposed 9kms of underground pipe posed a safety risk.
Residents from the affected area went to the company’s head office in Dublin today claiming the company did not have permission to build the Corrib pipeline despite a High Court injunction granting permission to begin work.
They were refused entry to the offices but a company representative met the delegation on the street.
Maura Harrington a school principal from Rossport, Co Mayo today insisted the process granting Shell permission to begin work was faulty and only allows for design and construction, not the piping of gas.
"They only have phase 3 interim consent which means they can drill trial holes ... even if they can lay the pipes they cannot put gas through them. But we know once they're down then that will be a different story," she told ireland.com.
She said the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources had ordered an independent review of the Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) used in granting the permission. But the company which carried out the review for the department was part-owned by Shell and could not therefore be regarded independent.
The minister at the department Noel Dempsey has ordered another evaluation of the safety aspects of the pipeline and has suspended final approval to install and operate the pipeline until the report is received.
The protesters argue that the pipe will be capable of carrying gas at a rate of 340 bars of pressure. This compares to 70 bars on the national grid. They say this poses a serious health risk and supported in their claim by Green party energy spokesman Eamon Ryan.
“I have looked into this matter extensively for the last two years and nobody has been able to fully reassure me that it is safe to put such a high pressurized and untreated gas pipeline through 9km of what is effectively a floating bog,” Mr Ryan said.
He also supported the residents claim that bogland on which the pipe is due to be buried creates a further potential hazard.
Shell today accused the campaigners of giving out false information about the pipeline - planned to come ashore from the Corrib gas field at Glengad running to a new gas terminal at Bellanaboy.
The company had gone to “considerable lengths to ensure that accurate information is available” and was “concerned at the continuing efforts of a small minority” to misrepresent the facts.
“The Corrib project has been exposed to one of the most exhaustive processes of public scrutiny of any project of its kind in Ireland and it is unfortunate that some opponents have sought to undermine public confidence in this process,” the company said in a statement this afternoon.
It said it had engaged in extensive discussion with locals and that only seven of the 34 affected landowners were objecting. The objectors however, say they own 50 per cent of land.
Shell maintain moves to prevent Shell representatives to enter lands last week meant they were in contempt of the High Court injunction.
The company said it is available for a meeting but the objectors say they will discuss the matter in a public forum.