Gas pipeline: Bord Pleanála 'should have looked for safety audit'

An Bord Pleanála should have demanded a safety audit before approving the €200m Corrib Gas Field project, it was claimed today.

Eamon Ryan TD, the Green party’s energy spokesman, expressed concerns that the nine kilometres of upstream pipeline will be located in Co Mayo bogland which is liable to move.

A condition has been set that a safety audit be carried out on this aspect of the project, but Mr Ryan said such a report should have been sought before consent was given.

“Similarly, there are real concerns about the effect of moving half a million tonnes of peat from the site to a bog at Srahmore ten kilometres away,” he said.

“An Bord Pleanála have again asked the developers to show how this operation, which involves 800 lorry journeys a day, can be done in a way which does not damage the local road network or surrounding environment. Again one has to ask why it did not insist that these assurances be forthcoming before consent was given.”

The decision to grant approval to the controversial project was announced on Friday despite objections from locals.

The plan will necessitate the excavation of 450,000 cubic metres of peat from the site earmarked for 160-hectare gas refinery in Mayo.

Developers, Shell and EP Ireland Ltd, are now free to continue work on the gas refinery in Bellagelly, Co Mayo and a 117-hectare peat deposition site in nearby Srahmore.

The discovery of the gas field, 75 kilometres off the Mayo coastline, in 1996 was the largest of its kind since the Kinsale Gas find in 1971.

Under the project plans, the gas will be landed ashore at the gas refinery in Bellagelly. Bord Gais are to build a pipeline from there to Craughwell, Co Galway to connect the Corrib gas field to the national gas grid.

The field has the potential to supply 60% of the the nation’s annual gas requirements.