AN ORAL hearing into the construction of a 25km pipeline to connect the country's first planned liquefied natural gas terminal at Ralappane on the Shannon Estuary in Co Kerry to the national gas network at Leahys near Foynes in Co Limerick is to be held in early December, An Bord Pleanála said yesterday.
Compulsory purchase orders for land for the pipeline which went into public notice in August will form part of the hearing in Listowel. A total of 20 submissions have been received by the board. A senior planning inspector will chair the hearing, which will consider the proposal.
About 10 landowners have objected to the pipeline.
The pipeline was deemed strategic infrastructure earlier this summer, allowing the application to go straight to the appeals board.
Route selection as well as the possibility of linking the pipeline to the Tarbert power station and to the Moneypoint power station across the estuary are likely to be raised at the hearing.
Last month, legal challenges to permission for the terminal by the environmental group Friends of the Irish Environment and a local resident were dismissed at the Commercial Court.
Shannon LNG, which plans to construct the pipeline and the terminal, has an option to buy around 260 acres of Shannon Development-owned landbank on the Tarbert area of the estuary for the terminal. The terminal was earlier this year given the go-ahead with about 40 conditions.
The pipeline application was a separate part of the planning process. It is expected that Shannon LNG, an Irish subsidiary of the US corporation Hess LNG, as well as the local authorities, the Department of the Environment, the Health and Safety Authority, heritage and environmental organisations and individuals, will make submissions at the hearing.
One of the planning conditions attached to the permission for the terminal stipulated that the gas must be moved by pipeline.
A residents' group, Safety Before LNG, which opposes the pipeline, has welcomed the oral hearing. It said it was now part of a broader alliance and was advocating "responsible strategic siting" of LNG terminals.
The area's deep-water facilities means it is destined to become an energy hub, with Spanish energy giant Endesa already buying up the former Tarbert power station.