Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)

It is not going to be of help to anybody and it is certainly not in the interests of the five men in jail that Deputies want to try to get cheap political shots in instead of trying to resolve the issue. If we could work on trying to resolve the issue, it would be very helpful for everybody.

Deputies raised the issue of the QRA and why it is not available. The QRA, version F, which is the one we are operating on, is in the public domain on the Department's website. There were quite a number of questions on whether the pipeline is safe and rightly so, given the safety concerns raised by the families directly involved. I can only judge this issue by the reports and the expert advice that I receive. I am not an engineer, no more than most of the Deputies who spoke. All the advice I have is that the pipeline conforms to international standards and criteria and that the risks are within the normal international criteria. That is the information I have and that is the basis on which I must act. I cannot act in an arbitrary manner in relation to the matter.

Some Deputies raised a specific question, the answer to which might be helpful in providing the breathing space that is required in this situation. The basic question was whether Shell has permission to lay the pipeline at this time. It has not got the consent to do that. It has the consent, as Deputies have indicated, to mark out proposed routes and so forth, but it does not have the consent to lay the pipeline immediately. It cannot enter the lands to lay the pipeline at present.

Regarding the allegation that Shell has been allowed to ignore planning rules and procedures, I outlined earlier the various consents that the company had to get before proceeding. It had to get the plan of development approval, the pipeline consent to construct, the foreshore licence and consents under the Continental Shelf Act 1968. Those consents date back some time, in one case to 1968, and the company had to comply with each one. That is the procedure we agreed in this House for the construction of pipelines. To my knowledge, Shell has complied with all of those consents so far.

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