Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)

The Minister made an unfortunate accusation. He made allegations about some of the activities in which I am involved. These activities involve me standing up for my constituents who elected me. Both before and after I entered the Dáil, I spoke about the difficulties I have with the total giveaway of our natural resources and the need for the terms to renegotiated. In fairness to the Minister, he said he would look at this, in response to our Private Members' motion, and he has assigned a group to do so. As I understand it, he said this would take place before the end of the year. I greatly welcome this announcement.

Everything I have since done has involved standing by people who have genuine concerns. I acknowledge that the Minister set up the Advantica review and assigned Peter Cassells as an independent monitor. However, the difficulty lies in the fact that the pipeline's location is dictated by the location of the refinery. There is a major problem with this and certain issues were not addressed by the planning process. There was no code of practice in respect of the pipeline, which is required under EU law. The issue of coal venting was not examined by the planning process. These are very important matters which people find very upsetting.

I walk with the people in peaceful protest and do not condone anything other than peaceful protest. My views on this matter are well recognised. The Minister has made allegations about some of the activities in which I am involved but I am merely standing with the people and if this is wrong, I do not know what to think. This protest will continue. This is not a threat; it is a reality.

People come from outside the area to support the campaign but the people involved in protests, including the one that took place the last day, are invariably local people. Many local people who do not come every other day come to support the protesters on open days. Problems and conflict occur every day, which is very unfortunate, and the sooner it is ended, the better. The solution lies with the Minister. An independent commission is one way forward and I urge the Minister to take this option.

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