Priests right to back residents in gas pipeline row

BRENDAN CAFFERTY (Letters, November 6) seeks to take local clergy in Mayo to task because they have raised concerns over the Corrib gas pipeline. Yet in doing so the priests were only following the basic tenets of Christianity.

Thou shalt not steal: All over the world nation states are increasingly protective of their energy reserves. The gas in Mayo was signed away to Shell for next to nothing. The gas field is worth billions. How many hospital beds would a fair share of the proceeds have financed? How many extra, non-prefab classrooms? How many fire services?

Shell’s gas pipeline goes through private land acquired by compulsory purchase orders issued against local landowners. Nobody’s land is safe from profiteers now. The founding fathers of this State would never have envisaged or allowed another “plantation” such as this.

Thou shalt not kill: The usual way to process gas is on an offshore rig. Gas extracted from the seabed initially is in a dangerous, unstable and odourless form. It’s safer, but more costly, to treat the gas at sea, reduce the pressure and give it an odour.

But in Mayo, Shell are to be allowed to do it ‘on the cheap’, building a high- pressure pipeline which will go six miles inland via residential areas. In the event of an explosion — very likely in the lifetime of the pipeline — everyone within a quarter of a mile may be killed.

This is according to the Government’s own ‘safety’ report. The risks and costs, with Government approval, have been lifted from a foreign, profit-maximising company and dumped on local residents. Nobody has the right to expect compliance when parents believe their children are being put at risk of incineration in order to save a few bob to a wealthy company currently making record profits.

Whose country is this? Whose government is this? Mr Cafferty talks of contracts and jobs from building the pipeline. These, mostly, would be of a transient nature. Anyway, from a moral standpoint, no man should step forward to reap the rewards of putting fellow-citizens’ lives at risk.

North-west Mayo is a beautiful part of Ireland. The scheme, as currently configured, would greatly damage the tourist industry. Who would want to visit an area with a dangerous gas pipeline and a giant refinery? The benefits to the local economy are as illusory as the benefits to the national economy are paltry.

I applaud the priests who had the moral courage to speak out. As it stands, this project is severely lacking in morality. It represents unbridled capitalism in tandem with self-serving politicians. Any Christian will support the residents and campaign for Shell to refine the gas at sea.

Kevin Foley

Keel

Castlemaine

Co Kerry