LIVE: Clare TDs urged to oppose Clare LNG Terminal in Shannon Estuary

A letter has been sent to Clare TDs and the members of to key Oireachtas Committee members calling for the opposition of the recently announced a state Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal in the Shannon estuary.

It was sent by Environment and Climate groups with signatories including Friends of the Earth, Not Here Not Anywhere, Good Energies Alliance, Uplift and Trócaire.

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They are urging the TDs and Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy (CEE) and the Committee of Public Accounts due to the risks to human health and risks to the climate.

The groups also request that the local Clare TDs and the committees to look at the long-term impacts a fossil fuel terminal like this would have in the area.

The letter asks them to urge Minister for Climate, Darragh O’Brien, to ensure that the Bill that would enable the terminal by authorising Gas Networks Ireland to commission it, goes through the full legislative process and is not “fast-tracked” as was recently announced.

This is in response to the government's recent announcement that they plan to build a large LNG terminal in Cahiracon near Kildysart in County Clare.

Jerry MacEvilly from Friends of the Earth said, “We hope that the Clare TDs will take a long term view of what is best for the people of Clare and the beautiful Shannon estuary."

"The decision to build an LNG terminal will have major adverse consequences for the communities around it and will lock us in to even higher energy prices and more polluting fossil fuels, all while Ireland is facing massive fines for climate targets” 

The letter discusses possible risks to health and safety locally, saying: “LNG terminals involve large and disruptive infrastructure, causing health impacts to local residents from air pollution, noise pollution, and risk to life through gas leaks and explosions, such as the Freeport LNG terminal explosion in the US in 2022."

Not Here Not Anywhere spokesperson, Angela Deegan, said: “It’s utterly outrageous that the Government is considering building an LNG terminal, when the overarching threat we face is that of runaway climate change - caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels such as LNG."

"The taxpayer money it will take to build it should instead be put into renewable energy, electricity storage solutions and investments to reduce our energy demand, such as extensive home energy retrofit programmes. Also, the permitting of any new, energy-guzzling data centres should be off the table.” she added.

The letter also outlines a refute to one of the government's main justifications for building the fossil fuel terminal which is security of supply.

According to the letter Professor Barry McMullin, Faculty of Engineering and Computing at Dublin City University, says “In terms of geopolitical risk, any geopolitical actor that has both the means and interest in attacking the gas connection infrastructure between Ireland and the UK,."

According to Mr McMullin this it has "the means and interest to attack LNG import infrastructure. Therefore, LNG import infrastructure does not actually mitigate that geopolitical risk."