Corrib gas field planning appeal opens today

An Bord Pleanála's oral hearing into the largest infrastructural project in the west opens in Ballina, Co Mayo, today when Enterprise Energy Ireland presents its case for an onshore terminal for the Corrib gas field.

The company has expressed confidence for a positive outcome to the two-week hearing, which will hear representations from objectors including Dúchas, the Heritage Service, An Taisce, the Erris Inshore Fishermen's Association, the Friends of the Irish Environment, the Bellanaboy/Lenamore residents and a number of individual objectors.

At a lunch for journalists in Ballina 11 days ago, the EEI managing director, Mr Briain Ó Catháin, predicted that the project would meet its first deadline of late 2003. It would have obtained the necessary planning and regulatory approvals before the end of next year, Mr Ó Catháin said in a statement.

These approvals will include clearance from the Marine Licence Vetting Committee (MLVC), set up by but billed as independent of the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources. It is expected that the MLVC will issue its report on environmental impact relating to the foreshore lease, foreshore licence and dumping-at-sea permits within the next month, and the Minister for the Marine, Mr Fahey, has promised to make it public before he makes a final decision.

The project partners have several other hoops to go through,however, including approval by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of an integrated pollution control licence. In all, four authorities are involved in approving the various planning and development stages.

Mr Ó Catháin believes the project will act as a catalyst in attracting industry to the west and provide a massive economic boost to Mayo. The whole of the north-west would benefit from a total investment of over €830 million, he said, and the project had received great support in the Erris region.

"Since we opened our information office in Bangor Erris last August, we have had approximately 1,000 visitors," he said. "Many of the visits have been from people in the region inquiring about employment, offering accommodation and seeking further information on the project. Others have called in just to wish the project well. The response has been extremely positive."

The information office in Bangor Erris is one of a series of public relations initiatives undertaken by the company, which holds a 45 per cent share in the Corrib field - with Statoil (36.5 per cent) and Marathon (18.5 per cent) being the other partners. Advertisements have been taken out in local newspapers at various stages of the development, two newsletters have been published, and a promotional video was made comparing north Mayo to the Point of Ayr in north Wales.

EEI has been associated with events ranging from the Humbert Summer School in Ballina last summer to the Esat Young Scientists' Exhibition and the annual dinner of the Mayo Association in Dublin earlier this month.

A spokesman for the company said he could not quantify the money spent on public relations and information. Many of the early concerns appeared to have been allayed, he said.

The planning application appealed to An Bord Pleanála is the second such prepared by the company for Mayo County Council; the first was considered insufficient by the council. Permission was granted by council, with conditions, last August.

The company also had to prepare a new environmental impact statement for the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources, when the first was deemed to be unsatisfactory.

The new onshore planning application included alterations to the original plan to locate the terminal seven kilometres inshore at Bellanaboy Bridge in the townland of Bellagelly South - on lands purchased from Coillte, the forestry agency. A revised environmental impact statement included a new "peat strategy" and contained "more detailed information on water and air", the company said.

Objectors are concerned about onshore and offshore effects, including the effect on inshore fisheries - but the Bord Pleanála hearing will be concerned with the onshore aspects. Broadhaven Bay is a candidate Special Area of Conservation (SAC), while Sruwaddacon Bay, through which the pipe will travel, is a Special Protection Area (SPA), with high concentrations of wintering wader birds and wildfowl. It is part of the Glenamoy Bog Complex SAC, beside the Broadhaven candidate SAC.

Dúchas is concerned that the outfall from the terminal building will flow into the candidate SAC. The reception terminal will separate water, condensation and some "formation" water from the gas, and this effluent may contain trace levels of minerals and metals, as well as traces of chemicals injected into the well heads at sea.

The project has already received approval from the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Fahey, who granted it a petroleum lease last November - and described this as a "milestone in Irish exploration history".

The Minister, who is also concerned about the gas link-up to western towns apart from his own Galway, has stressed that it will be subject to full environmental clearance.

Last October, the Minister was accused by the Fine Gael TD for Mayo, Mr Michael Ring, of interfering in the planning process. Mr Ring had been told that an official from Mr Fahey's Department was at a meeting hosted by Mayo County Council last June, and in a Dáil reply to Mr Ring, the Minister admitted that his Department had contacted Mayo County Council and asked to be informed before a decision was taken on the planning application.

A subsequent verbal exchange between the two in the corridors of Leinster House was witnessed by several colleagues. Mr Ring has declined to confirm or deny the details of the altercation, but observers say its occurrence was a reflection of the high stakes, and the tensions, involved in the run-up to a general election.