Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister to the House and I wish him well with this Bill. It is very important and some credit for this should go to Shell to Sea and to the Rossport five. They have probably highlighted the safety issues and they have generated the debate. However, credit is also due to the Minister for bringing forward this Bill.

I was a member of Mayo County Council when the gas issue first arose. There was a time when it was thought that the gas would come onshore at Rossaveel and into Galway. However, it came through Broadhaven and County Mayo. There was a great welcome for that in Mayo because it allowed the pipeline to come right through the county and all the way into Galway. It has also opened up to Sligo and the north west. A pipeline was planned from Dundalk via Longford and Athlone to Galway and the Corrib Basin, which would have seen the north west without gas. The fact that it was brought in through Broadhaven opened up the west and the north west for connection to pipeline gas. We welcomed that at the time.

I was at a meeting in Belmullet when this came up. The biggest objection at that time came from the fishermen. The gas find was 75 miles out in the Atlantic in very rough seas. There are different ways of disposing of the outflow. In some cases, it can go back down the wellhead from which it comes in the first place. This would have meant that Shell would have had to bring a second line back out. However, the company did not plan to do that and had planned instead to bring the pipeline out four or five miles. This drew the wrath of the fishermen in that area because they could see that this outflow, only four or five miles from the coast, would be washed ashore and would affect them. They got their way with Shell which eventually put the outflow further out to sea.

The objections took a different route after that. Senator Ó Brolcháin has said that it is a Fine Gael stronghold, but nothing could be further from the truth. Fine Gael has one councillor in the area, and between 2002 and 2007 the area was represented by an Independent Deputy.