While you were voting, Pat Carey (pictured after he lost his seat on Saturday) was a busy man.
On the day of the election he was signing “key consents” for the last section of the Corrib gas pipeline
The consent application by Shell, according to Green Party sources, had not arrived on outgoing energy minister Eamon Ryan’s desk before he left office.
The approved 8km of pipeline linking the landfall to the gas terminal at Ballinaboy runs through a special area of conservation in Sruwaddacon estuary.
The Department of Energy has said the consent to construct the pipeline and approval of the project’s amended plan of development was issued as a matter of course after An Bord Pleanála approved the new pipeline route in January.
An Taisce says it is seeking a judicial review of the Bord Pleanála decision, as it believes it is in breach of several EU directives.
Sinn Féin’s spokesman on natural resources Martin Ferris described the Minister’s move as “sharp practice”.
“Pat Carey issued this order on the day that he lost his seat and Fianna Fáil lost power. He had no political or moral authority to give the go-ahead to a pipeline over which many concerns still exist even with the changes made following the Bord Pleanála ruling.”
Leaving the obvious question: What else was signed on election day?
Criticism As Carey Signs Off On Corrib Pipeline (Deaglan de Breadun and Lorna Siggins, Irish Times)