Shell pipeline blamed on weak government

The state’s unprecedented use of law and order forces against its own citizens while protecting private commercial interests augurs badly for a remote community in north Mayo and for the State as a whole, a planning hearing has been told.

John Monaghan of the community group Pobal Chill Chomain was speaking on the penultimate day of the public hearing into Shell’s controversial high-pressure pipeline and onshore refinery.

Various interest groups and observers, for and against the project, made their closing remarks last week.

“This application by Shell EP Ireland Ltd . . . to construct an upstream gas pipeline is only the most recent episode in arguably the most contentious issue to affect this island outside the Troubles,” Mr Monaghan argued.

“At no other time in the history of this State have private interests so clearly invaded the realm of the common good, and the unprecedented use of the State’s security and armed forces against its own citizens should be properly recorded as a dark development that does not bode well for the future of this community, or this country,” Mr Monaghan said.

Referring to the fallout from an ethos of “light regulation”, Micheal O Seighin said: “In a weak regulatory environment lacking in political will, a commercial entity will bleed every contradiction for its benefit and to the detriment of the citizen, if that is what it is allowed to do.”

Echoing these concerns, Ciaran O Murchu of Pobail le Cheile said: “In the recent Freefall documentary on the current economic and banking crisis, a combination of factors was cited as the main reason for our current precarious economic position.”

He argued these same factors -- weak political leadership, the strong lobby influence of commercial developers and a failure of regulatory authorities to act in the best interests of the State and the people -- led to the Corrib controversy. The resumed planning appeals board hearing is under the remit of the Strategic Infrastructure Act and is deliberating on a revised application by Shell, which involves tunnelling a section of the pipeline route under the Sruwaddacon estuary, a conservation area.

Attracta Ui Bhroin argued on behalf of An Taisce that Shell had not “credibly demonstrated” either the strategic or sustainable basis for the project.

“The argument that Corrib constitutes 60 per cent of Ireland’s demand has been advanced. It remains to be seen if it will ever approach anything approaching that of Ireland’s supply,” she said.

Urgent Appeal