I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this important matter on the Adjournment. The people of Erris, who have been compelled to have the Corrib gas upstream pipeline adjacent to their homes, are scared out of their minds. They have discovered, through the Minister's replies to my parliamentary questions, that no independent quantified risk assessment has been carried out on the Corrib gas upstream pipeline which passes near their homes.
When I phoned the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, I was informed that an independent QRA was carried out by Andrew Johnston on 28 March 2002. When I read the Johnston report, which the Department supplied, I was convinced that it was not a QRA. I subsequently learned from the Minister's replies to my parliamentary questions and from Shell that the Johnston report is not the QRA and is just a desk study of what the Department is now calling the QRA. The document referred to by the Minister as the QRA was "in fact a quantified risk assessment report commissioned by the then named developers in 2001, Enterprise Energy (Ireland) Limited, on the onshore pipeline". The QRA "was undertaken by a firm of consultants, J.P. Kenny, on behalf of the developer who himself had worked on the design brief for the pipeline and on which the QRA was based". This is scandalous because J.P. Kenny conducted the QRA on his own work. Where is the independence?
There is more. To me the old saying, "He who pays the piper calls the tune," sets the agenda here. I asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and National Resources, Deputy Noel Dempsey, to make available for public examination the quantified risk assessment report commissioned by Enterprise Energy (Ireland) in 2001 on the Corrib gas pipeline. He replied to my parliamentary question on 1 March 2005: "Since the QRA report forms part of the deliberate process under which Shell has sought consent to install and commission the pipeline, it would not be appropriate to release the report at this stage." I do not know exactly what that means except that for some reason the Minister does not want the report released. I had asked the Department and Shell for this report to be released, but this did not happen. Why is it that this report is not being released? Is there something to hide? People believe there must be something to hide when it is not being released. Is there something the people are not supposed to know? Who knows?
I also asked the Minister in the same parliamentary question, which was answered on 1 March, whether he thought that the Enterprise Energy (Ireland) report was acceptable as an independent QRA since it was commissioned by the industrial promoters of the project, and whether he would consider commissioning an independent QRA in view of the health and safety concerns of the residents in the Erris area. I ask that again because I did not get an answer to it. The Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources is responsible for this situation and for the safety of the residents since it is the Department that has given Shell permission to proceed. How can the Department reassure the residents, in the absence of an independent QRA, that everything is all right and that it is safe to live there?
One local resident who is familiar with fire hydrants says the 10 bar water pressure produced by a fire hydrant would pin a man against a wall at 50 yards. Yet the pipeline is designed for 345 bar pressure and will be 150 bar initially. This man has to live beside the pipeline with his family, and he is very concerned. These are serious concerns. Serious health and safety questions are involved. How can the residents of Erris be reassured? Releasing the QRA for public inspection would be a first valuable step and commissioning an independent QRA would also be essential. Would the Minister of State live beside the pipeline without an independent QRA or where the QRA has been commissioned by developers? I would not. The people need reassurance and answers and are not getting them.