Campaign on gas find fires up in the west

Adverts for natural gas informing customers of a price freeze for three years irritate Michael Farrell. As chief executive of the newly formed Connacht Gold Co-op, which employs 550 people across north Connacht, he has seen oil prices triple in 18 months.

Connacht Gold's plants rely on oil, with an energy requirement of some £1.7 million a year. Other leading dairy food producers all have access to natural gas.

Mr Farrell, like many others in the west, is not impressed with the Government's response to the discovery of natural gas off the Mayo coast. "There will not be a level playing field for industry in the west until we get it," he said.

The Government's intentions in relation to the Corrib find, and whether it is to be used to underpin regional development, are still far from clear.

This week two Government Ministers appeared to make conflicting statements.

On Monday the Minister for the Marine and Natural Re sources, Mr Fahey, said towns in the west would benefit from the Corrib find.

But the only certainty so far, announced by the Taoiseach on October 4th, is that a £100 million pipeline is to be built from Pollatomish in Co Mayo to Craughwell in Co Galway to take the gas to the national grid.

Bord Gais Eireann had already decided, before Corrib's viability was known, to build a pipeline from Dublin to Galway.

Mr Fahey said that towns adjacent to the Mayo-Galway pipeline, such as Castlebar, Claremorris, Tuam and Athenry, would get a supply. But, in relation to other towns in north Connacht or the north-west region, Mr Fahey said he would be "pursuing" the building of a further pipeline to Ballina and Sligo.

The following day the Minister of State for Public Enterprise, Mr Jacob, sent out conflicting signals.

In response to a Dail question, he said the decision on where pipelines were to be built was "a matter for Bord Gais in the first instance". The difficulty with this is that Bord Gais makes decisions purely on a commercial basis and does not take into account the infrastructural needs of the west and north-west.

A campaign has been started by the Council for the West lobby group and an action committee is being formed. And it is proving an emotive issue, as Mr Fahey, a western Minister, is no doubt aware.

"Let's be clear. This is not about bringing gas to the west of Ireland. It is about taking it out," was how Dr Seamus Caulfield of the Council for the West described the Bord Gais plans.

The group's chairwoman, Ms Marian Harkin, who will be a Dail candidate at the next election, said the situation was like a game of ping-pong between the Government and Bord Gais. "What is the energy policy? Do we have one? Either the commitment is there or it isn't. We are asking for a clear statement of intent," she said.

Mr Fahey admitted that Bord Gais told him a pipeline to Sligo would require Government investment. The £100 million Mayo-Galway pipeline will be a joint venture between Bord Gais and the exploration companies.

Mr Michael Snee, the manager of operations and construction at Bord Gais, stressed that they will only build pipelines to service towns and industries "if it meets investment criteria".

He said consultants were examining the viability of bringing a pipeline to Ballina and Sligo and would report back within four months.

In relation to Donegal, he said he believed it would be "out of the question in the short to medium term". Any pipeline to Sligo would be a small six- or eight-inch pipe as opposed to the 30-inch one on main routes.

He said Bord Gais could not consider connecting towns on the basis that the availability of natural gas would attract industry and more customers. "There is no way we could put infrastructure down on speculation." He accepted that if grant aid were acceptable it would make it "a lot more attractive."

If the Government decides to take a long-term view, the question of linking into Northern Ireland will have to be considered. This approach would have obvious benefits for the north-west and is the one favoured by Donegal's representative at the cabinet table, Mr Jim McDaid.

North-South bodies, with the assistance of EU money for cross-Border projects, could play a role in ensuring natural gas is taken from Belfast to Derry and then on to Donegal. "I see more potential in looking to the east," Mr McDaid said.

The importance of getting policy right at this time has been pointed out to the Government by the Western Development Commission (WDC), a State agency. Any policy formulated now, it says, will encompass not just the Corrib field, with its predicted 10-year life-span, but all future gas fields off the west coast.

The WDC's chief executive, Mr Liam Scollan, said that as legislation was being drawn up to underpin the office of the gas regulator, this was the time to build in safeguards to make it more attractive for private operators to service less populated areas. He pointed out that similar measures were taken in the telecommunications sector.

Mr Scollan said there were still a lot of unknowns: nobody knew the precise benefit of spurs, for example. The WDC is in the process of setting up a meeting between the Departments of Public Enterprise and Marine and other State agencies to try to ensure an integrated approach.

It says serious consideration should first be given to having a gas-fired power station in the west, secondly to spurs for key towns, and thirdly to the possibility of connecting with Northern Ireland.