Dempsey urged to act as five jailed over pipeline row
The multinational oil company, Shell, yesterday succeeded in its application to have five protesters imprisoned for breaching an injunction preventing them from blocking the construction of the gas pipeline in the village of Rossport in Erris, Co Mayo.
Amid a welter of protests to the decision from friends and families of the five men, and from opposition politicians, Mr Dempsey declined to intervene either to seek the release of the men or to find a speedy resolution to the dispute.
Mr Dempsey said it would not be prudent for a Government minister to become involved in a matter upon which a court had taken a decision.
But following the jailing of the men for contempt, several prominent opposition politicians weighed in and demanded the minister intervene.
Socialist TD Joe Higgins was outspoken in his criticism of the decision, claiming that the High Court had sent people to prison before the minister had signed the consent allowing pipe-laying to go ahead. He said that its logic seemed to turn on its head the decision in the GAMA case.
“The High Court said the report on GAMA should be suppressed until the full hearing took place.
“But here, the High Court has sent people to prison before the full hearing has taken place on the substantive issue.”
He contended it was scandalous that Shell could be allowed lay pipes and have all the ground before a decision was made on whether or not it could run gas through the pipes and called for the men to be released immediately.
Labour’s spokesman on energy Tommy Broughan described the imprisonment as a “disturbing development” that must be brought to an end immediately.
He called on the minister to intervene by appointing an arbitrator to resolve the dispute.
His Green Party counterpart Eamon Ryan said local people had simply asked the minister to ask Shell to show that the pipelines were safe.
The five men, farmers Willie Corduff, Philip McGrath and Brendan Philbin and retired schoolteachers Vincent McGrath and Micheál Ó Suighín, were imprisoned after refusing to give assurances they would not obstruct the construction.
All said they were concerned over health and safety issues surrounding the high-pressure pipeline, which will pass close to their houses.
Supporters and relatives last night held a protest outside Mountjoy Prison. Mr Ó Suighín’s wife, Caitlín, said she was very proud of the courageous stand her husband had taken.
“We were sent to Hell or to Connacht many hundreds of years ago. We went to Connacht and now we are being sent to hell by Shell,” she told reporters outside the Four Courts.
