The developers of the country's first liquified natural gas (LNG) import terminal and regasification centre described the proposed plant yesterday as "the right project, in the right location at the right time".
Shannon LNG was addressing the opening of An Bord Pleanála hearing into the €500 million project, earmarked for a Shannon Development-owned land bank in Co Kerry. But residents speaking at the proceedings at the Brandon Hotel in Tralee said the proposed area between Ballylongford and Tarbert was "not just a land bank".
They said it was also a thriving local community, suggesting that safety aspects and other issues had still to be fully addressed.
Opening the proceedings, which are expected to continue into next week, chairman Andrew Boyle, senior planning inspector with An Bord Pleanála, said: "This is an informal hearing with the primary purpose of eliciting facts to enable the board to come to a decision."
It was a direct application to An Bord Pleanála under the Strategic Infrastructure Act 2006.
An environmental study as required under the planning acts, accompanied the proposal.
A number of other requirements were also necessary, including a foreshore lease, integrated pollution control licence from the EPA and fire safety certificates from Kerry County Council.
Health and safety would be one of the most important aspects of the hearing, Mr Boyle said.
The applicant, Shannon LNG, a subsidiary of US corporation Hess LNG had an option to purchase 280 acres, or just under half the Shannon Development-owned land bank, depending on planning being granted. LNG was natural gas cooled to liquid to be transported and stored "like a cold drink in a thermos flask" before being turned back into gas, Paddy Power managing director of Shannon LNG explained.
Mr Power, a geoscientist and physicist who has worked in the oil and gas industry for over 35 years, said the proposal was "an all-Ireland project" which would link to the national gas grid and supply customers throughout the island.
It could eventually be a world scale terminal but would not be the biggest in the world, said Mr Boyle.
The company had looked at 18 other locations around the coast, including Dublin and Waterford and a number of others on the Shannon estuary before deciding on the Tarbert-Ballylongford site.
"Gas reserves are being rapidly depleted in Ireland and the UK and throughout Europe. Security of supply, especially for Ireland is of major concern," Mr Power said.
Over 90 per cent of Ireland's gas was now coming from the UK "but the UK itself is running out of gas" and would be importing almost 80 per cent of its own gas by 2016.
"It makes no sense to rely on a country that is itself running out of gas," Mr Power said. Africa, the Middle East and Russia were now the major sources.
Using LNG would reduce reliance on UK gas. Some 11 billion cubic feet of gas per day was used by the UK and Ireland.
The island of Ireland which relied on natural gas for 60 per cent of its electricity uses 600 million cubic feet per day, Mr Power said.