Open Letter to Noel Dempsey - Minister for Natural Resources, Marine & Communications.

mayo | environment | news report Sunday July 30, 2006 00:56 by Niall Harnett - Shell to Sea.

A few questions for Minister Noel Dempsey in light of his acceptance of Peter Cassells' report and it's recommendations with regard to the Shell Corrib Gas Project.

Minister Dempsey,

Following the publication of Peter Cassells' report and your subsequent question and answer sessions with journalists and news crews, I'm hoping you might take some more time to answer a few more questions and elaborate a bit on what you talked about yesterday.

I look forward to hearing from you, please use the 'add your comments' link at bottom right to publish your answers here. Please be honest and don't worry about causing offence with frank answers.

Thank you,

Niall Harnett.

In terms of Shell and the Government's approach to the concerns of the community you say that there are "some genuine concerns that if they had been detected earlier that would have been helpful".

- What concerns specifically do you recognise as the genuine concerns of the community?

You say that you "believe that The Rossport Five don’t reflect the overall views of the community generally".

- What information have you got to substantiate that belief? Have you or Peter Cassells done any kind of survey of opinion in the area and if so please could you publish the results?

You say that "There are people in particular who claim to be speaking on behalf of all of the community and it’s quite clear that that’s not true".

- What information have you got that will show this to be 'quite clear' and can you share that information with us please?

You say that you "think that finding a solution that will satisfy everybody is impossible, because there are some people that just don’t want to be satisfied".

I presume 'some people' refers to The Rossport Five and the Shell to Sea campaigners who will argue that this campaign is working not only to satisfy and address the local needs and concerns of a community but also the wider national interest in terms of responsible management of our natural resources.

- What aspects of the Corrib Gas Project do you say are of benefit to the community in terms of satisfying their concerns and interests?

You say that you are "concerned to find a solution that all ‘reasonable’ people will accept reasonably … and I think we have that now".

I think it would be fair to say that the note of sarcasm in your use of the word 'reasonable', would mean that you consider the position of the Rossport Five and the Shell to Sea campaign to be 'unreasonable'.

This is an important question, please answer it as fully and clearly as you can.

- What do you find unreasonable about the Shell to Sea campaign?