Dempsey rules out intervention in pipeline dispute

COMMUNICATIONS Minister Noel Dempsey yesterday insisted he could not intervene in the increasingly bitter dispute over Shell’s Corrib Gas proposal, as five Mayo men spent a second night in jail.

With protests against the jailing taking place in Rossport and Bellanaboy, Co Mayo, in Galway and outside Leinster House, Mr Dempsey told the Dáil that he would be willing to appoint a mediator if dialogue between the multinational oil company and local protesters failed. However, he added that would be futile if the position of each side remained intractable.

The dispute centres over Shell’s decision to start preparatory work to lay pipes connecting its offshore gas fields and the processing terminal five kilometres inland in Bellanaboy, Mayo.