Gas line protest: the fears grow

RECENTLY I have come to have great pity for the people in north Mayo who are objecting to the proposed Corrib gas pipeline and refinery.

I think their suffering is far worse now than when the Rossport Five were sent to prison for 94 four days.

Shell — with the support of its own security force and with physical back-up from the naval service and the gardaí — relentlessly continues its efforts to bring raw gas ashore in Glengad Bay.

There are many valid reasons why people in the area, along with their supporters, feel obliged to protest.

They fear gas explosions in an area prone to landslides, they fear the pipes that will carry raw gas through populated areas, they fear the destruction of the landscape and special areas of conservation, they fear the end of a way of life they cherish and there is anger that Shell ignored the equitable solution proposed by the people.

In the last couple of weeks people objected most strongly to winch ships that anchored in the bay while awaiting the arrival of the Solitaire, the world’s largest deep-water pipe-laying vessel.

It seems Shell has permission to lay the underwater pipeline and bring it to shore in Glengad Bay.

But what then?

They must yet seek permission to run an underground pipe from the bay to the terminal at Ballinaboy, but who can refuse them after all their activity at sea?

They wish to present us with a fait accompli. Now we are paying the price for our piecemeal planning process. Are the planning authorities left with any real choice but to cave in before the might of Shell?

So much for the independence of the planning process of a sovereign State. And the three government parties stay silent (and subservient?).

Shame.

Seán Ó Riain

Leopardstown Gardens

Blackrock

Co Dublin