Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)

I thank the Minister and I accept his point that it is an operational matter. I do not want to be scaremongering, but I have good information that there was an explosion not too far from the Tipperary border. The Minister may say there is an independent internal review and that it was not a pipeline integrity issue, but I still have huge worries. I would not have had a clue about those pipelines only that I saw the helicopter flying overhead when it was being developed. It was a tremendous job of work and I saw the testing that went on at the time.

The worry is that the competent contractors that Bord Gáis has had in place since long before the pipeline was built are no longer in place. Commitments are not being honoured by Balfour Beatty, among others, which got the contracts to carry out the work. There are major worries about this and while I do not want to peddle misery, it will be too late to talk about it if something serious happens and standards lapse in these companies, some of which have experience here but many of which do not. Many of them do not have the knowledge, expertise, capabilities or responsibilities. They are in at low cost, but we cannot afford this for a major piece of energy infrastructure, nor we can we afford it from a health and safety point of view more importantly. The Health and Safety Authority closes down small businesses and farms every day of the week, and rightly so if there are problems, but this is a major issue of national importance and that is why I put down the question. I appeal to the Minister to insist that there is some fairness and continuity of good practice, which was delivered by the many contractors of Bord Gáis for decades, one of them in my own town of Clonmel - MP Ryan and Company - and which have since been left high and dry, while companies with possible shoddy records are doing this work. That cannot happen.

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