Shell is to provide broadband along the Corrib gas pipeline

SHELL IS TO spend €750,000 providing high-capacity broadband for the west, but some locals don’t believe it will make much of a difference.

The Taoiseach is in Mayo today to launch Erris Enterprise Week, sponsored by the energy giant and where the announcement was made.

The investment will see the company provide 132 kilometres of high capacity fibre broadband to the State in ducting put in place by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (DCENR).

The ducting runs alongside the Corrib gas pipeline, but Shell says that it will also include wireless internet.

Shell E&P Ireland Limited (SEPIL) and its partners Statoil and Vermilion Resources will invest €750,000 in the installation of the fibre optic cable, which will then be handed over to the State, specifically to the DCENR, to support regional development in the West.

However, Betty Schult of the Kilcommon Lodge in Pullathomas told TheJournal.ie that the move is “propaganda”.

“It’s a pittance in comparison to the damage they have done to the environment. It’s beside the point.

“There hasn’t been any social benefit. We have been given footpaths and street lights, but half the homes are unoccupied because we don’t have the infrastructure to keep them.

“They gave us flower baskets, but nobody watered them. It’s all propaganda.

It’s like all Shell iniatives: it’s not for our benefit. It’s like the gas, it will leave here and go elsewhere.