"The Minister [Pat Rabbitte], I think, has done a very good job, and he has come out supporting the industry, in a way that other Ministers haven't in the past. And I think that's to his credit."
AS THE oral hearing into Shell’s proposed onshore pipeline tunnel enters its second week, objectors to the project raised a flag at the Customs House in Dublin in an re-enactment of an iconic World War II photograph.
Shell to Sea supporters raised the Shell flag at the Department of Environment offices in a re-creation of the raising of the US flag at the Pacific Island of Two Jima.
Shell to Sea representatives said the flag-raising signified that “Shell’s takeover of Ireland is now complete”.
The move came just a day before the deadline for submissions on Shell’s application for a foreshore licence to allow the construction of a 4.9km tunnel under Sruwaddacon Bay.
“We are asking Minister for the Environment John Gormley to reject Shell’s foreshore application. If the minister doesn’t see fit to reject this destructive application outright then we request that an oral hearing be held on this foreshore licence so that the health, safety and environmental impacts of it can be appropriately assessed,” said Dublin Shell to Sea spokesperson Caoimhe Kerins.
But Shell says building the pipeline under Sruwaddacon Bay means the nearest occupied house is now 234 metres away from the pipeline, more than three times the original distance.
Following the board’s request for further information, Shell submitted a revised environmental impact statement (EIS) under the Strategic Infrastructure Act, seeking planning permission to build a 4.9km tunnel under Sruwaddacon Bay, to carry the onshore pipeline from the landfall at Glengad towards the gas processing terminal at Bellanaboy.
Shell’s managing director, Terry Nolan, said the resumption of the hearing allowed Shell to show the safety systems and features incorporated in the design of the Corrib project.
“The Corrib onshore pipeline is safe. Its design provides a level of safety considerably beyond the risk criteria suggested by An Bord Pleanála. We have designed a tunnel to carry the pipeline under the bay because it will have the least environmental impact on the bay, which is a special area of conservation,” Mr Nolan said.
