Call to re-open Corrib hearing

AN BORD Pleanála is considering a request to re-open the oral hearing into the Corrib gas pipeline.
Community group Pobal Chill Chomain sent the request to the board late last week.
The group says the request has been made because of what it claims is “serious irregularities” in further information supplied by Shell E&P Ireland to the Department of the Environment for a foreshore licence application. The new information was provided on October 26 last.
The community group claims the information for the foreshore application for a new pipeline route through Sruwaddacon estuary was submitted more than three weeks after the closure of An Bord Pleanála’s resumed oral hearing into the pipeline application but differs significantly in some important details.

Much of the information provided recently was withheld from the planning hearings by both the Department of Energy and Shell, but is being presented as forming part of the planning process, the group said.
Clear references are made to the Health and Safety Authority (whose input was absent from the planning hearings) and to fundamental issues such as public safety, housing proximity and land-use planning, according to a letter from the group.
Pobal Chill Chomain says it believes there is a real danger the board’s deliberations will result in the completion of a project that has escaped full and proper scrutiny unless the oral hearing is re-opened.
An Bord Pleanála has said it will consider the matter but has refused to make any further comment.