The Department of the Marine has been criticised for failing to publicise a new requirement for an environmental assessment for future oil and gas exploration off the Irish west coast.
Micheál Ó Seighín, one of the five north Mayo men jailed last year over opposition to the Corrib gas onshore pipeline, accused the department yesterday of engaging in a "charade" over its obligations under an EU directive recently transposed into Irish law.
Mr Ó Seighín was speaking at a public consultation workshop hosted by the department's petroleum affairs division in Galway yesterday - one of a series held this week, and the first for a major marine project under the terms of the EU's Strategic Environmental Assessment directive.
The directive, transposed into Irish law in 2005, obliges member states to carry out an environmental assessment for any large-scale development that would have significant impacts.
Scottish marine environmental consultants ERT Ltd were hired to conduct the first such study for offshore oil and gas exploration, and presented their draft findings at the poorly attended workshop in Galway yesterday.
Minister for the Marine Noel Dempsey has received five applications for exploration in various blocks on the Slyne, Erris and Donegal basins - a 25,000sq km sea area extending 50-250km off the northwest and west coasts.
The assessment does not cover previous licences issued for this area, including the petroleum lease awarded for the Corrib gas field. Successful applicants will be given frontier exploration licences lasting 15 years. The consultants confirmed during questioning that they were given just six months to compile a report, engage in public consultation and produce a final document.
The draft document, for which submissions must be received by May 11th, notes that there is "no basis" on which to suggest licensing constraints in the area, but says that current available information for the offshore area is "insufficiently detailed".
The document says that seabirds, whales and dolphins would be most vulnerable, due to possible sea surface pollution and the effects of underwater noise from seismic surveys. It recommends that guidelines for seismic surveys drawn up by the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group should be made "a requirement".
The department said it had placed adverts for the workshops on April 11th in the Irish Independent, Connacht Tribune, Sligo Champion, Donegal Democrat, Mayo News and Foinse.