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For
Immediate Release
Press
Release June 8th 2021:
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Revelation
that Irish Green Party Climate Chairman Brian Leddin is a former 5-year
employee up to 2020 of new Shannon LNG fracked gas import terminal
applicant is feared as the real reason he has ruled all amendments to
the Climate Bill banning fracked gas imports out of order
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'Safety
Before LNG' has lodged an urgent formal complaint to the Climate
Committee on Climate Action after it was revealed over the weekend that
its Chariman, Green Party T.D. Brian Leddin, was an almost 5-year
employee of the company that has lodged a new active pre-consultation
application with
An Bord Pleanála. for
the Shannon LNG fracked gas import terminal on the Shannon
Estuary.
On
June 2nd, Chairman Leddin ruled "out
of order" every single proposed fracking amendment to the
Climate Bill thereby preventing a legislative proposal to ban fracked
gas imports from reaching the floor of the Dáil for a vote. A
legislative ban on fracked gas imports would kill the proposed Shannon
LNG fracked gas import terminal once and for all, but the door to
fracked gas imports is now kept open thanks to the rulings by
Chairman Leddin - a member of the Green Party which itself has
an official policy of opposition to fracked gas
imports.
Under Ethical Code
of Conduct rules, even a percevied conflict of interest by the powerful
office-holder position of Chairman of a Joint Oireachtas Committee must
be dealt with before any decisions are made which could bring the
decisions of the entire Climate Committee into disrepute. "If Chairman
Leddin did not make any declaration that his most recent employer was
the company that has an active
application at An Bord Pleanála for a fracked gas import
terminal before he personally wrote to TDs ruling their fracking
amendments out of order, then we have a serious problem of
transparency and accountability",
said John McElligott of Safety Before LNG. The reason why the
Green Party would block all amendments to the Climate Bill that would
legally block fracked gas imports is now becoming clearer.
Previously, on September
16th, 2019, while a councillor in
Limerick city, Chairman Leddin had to declare a conflict of interest
for a special
meeting of September 30th 2019 to discuss the O’Connell
Street Revitalisation
for which his employer ARUP were the design
consultants:
Notes to Editor:
1. The full
complaint is as follows and can also be downloaded here
Ms
Gina Long
Clerk
to the Joint Committee on Climate Action
Leinster
House
Kildare
Street
Dublin
2 D02 XR20
By
email to [email protected]
Re:
Urgent
Perceived conflict of Interest Concerns by the Chairman of the Climate
Committee
Dear
members of the Committee,
I
am writing to you deeply concerned that there may be a serious
perceived
conflict of interest by the Chairman of the Committee on Climate Action
in his
ruling out of order in writing of the proposed fracked gas amendments
to the
Climate Bill currently at Committee Stage. If true, such a perceived
conflict
of interest could bring the decisions of the Committee on Amendments to
the
Climate Bill into grave disrepute. I want an immediate and urgent
investigation
of these concerns and the re-instatement of the amendments in question
in the
interest of fairness and transparency and the matter to be urgently
brought
before a full meeting of the Climate Committee and not just the Select
Committee if no declaration was made by Chairman Brian Leddin before he
made
the relevant decisions in question.
I
am also deeply concerned that when Jennifer Whitmore T.D. tried to
bring the
matter up in the committee meeting on June 3rd Chairman Leddin
incorrectly stated
"The Deputy can take the matter up
with the Ceann Comhairle as it is a ruling of the Dáil".
My
understanding is that it was Chairman Leddin and not the Dáil
that ruled the
amendments out of order.
When he
ruled on June 2nd that the amendments to the climate bill on fracked
gas were “out
of order”,
I am concerned that there would have been a perceived conflict of
interest if Chairman Leddin did not declare to the Committee that ARUP,
the
company he worked for immediately before becoming a TD for nearly 5
years, was
the engineering company behind the proposed Shannon LNG fracked gas
import
terminal at Tarbert in County Kerry.
In 2017,
while Chairman Leddin was an ARUP employee, ARUP prepared the
application for
the extension of planning permission for Shannon LNG - which was later
overturned in the High Court after an alleged €1million offer
to pull the case
was turned down by the activists who took the challenge. The company
has an
active pre-application at An Bord Pleanála for a new
permission for the
development of a new fracked gas import terminal which was lodged in
March 2019
by Shannon LNG and ARUP while Chairman Leddin was still an employee of
ARUP. A
legal ban on fracked gas imports would definitively kill the project
and the
sums at stake count in the millions of euros.
A precedent was already set by
Chairman Leddin himself in
declaring his conflict of interest with ARUP. On September
16th, 2019, while a councillor in
Limerick city, Chairman Leddin had to declare a conflict of interest
for the
special meeting of September 30th 2019 to discuss the
O’Connell Street
Revitalisation for which ARUP were the design
consultants.
Background
According to his Linkedin page,
Chairman Leddin worked for
Arup from July
2015-February 2020.
https://ie.linkedin.com/in/brian-leddin-b418b026
ARUP has
been providing engineering services for the proposed Shannon LNG
fracked gas
import terminal since 2008.
“Arup
prepared the Environmental Impact Statement for the project and managed
the
planning application, including public hearings and submissions. In
2008, the
project received planning permission under the new Strategic
Infrastructure
Development legislation, the first private development to do so. In
2012, the
terminal was re-designed to incorporate a 500MW high-efficiency
Combined Heat
and Power (CHP) plant. Arup also prepared the Environmental Impact
Statement
and successful planning application for this development” (https://www.arup.com/projects/shannon-lng-terminal).
In 2017, while Chairman Leddin worked
for ARUP, the company
once again dealt with the planning application for the extension of
planning
permission for the Shannon LNG terminal from 10 to 15 years, directly
with An
Bord Pleanála and provided a report on the Assessment of the
Environmental
impacts of such an extension (see https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r0Xe5fq_sAtyO97nD2IJUP_NrYJm-NqF/view?usp=sharing ).
On September
16th, 2019, while a councillor in
Limerick city, Chairman Leddin had to declare a conflict of interest
for a special
meeting of September 30th 2019 to discuss the O’Connell
Street Revitalisation
for which ARUP were the design
consultants:
Councillor Leddin also missed the
Special Meeting of the
Metropolitan District of Limerick of October
7th 2019 to discuss the EPA’s
decision to grant an incineration licence to Irish Cement at Mungret
(for which
ARUP was also the consultant) but I
found no record
of a conflict of interest having actually been declared by Chairman
Leddin for
this meeting.
On
June 2nd 2021, Chairman Leddin wrote
to TDs
that the proposed amendments
banning fracked gas imports and support for a global ban on fracking
“are not
relevant to the provisions of the Bill and
must be ruled out of order in accordance with Standing
Order
187(1).”
At
almost the same time, Minister Eamon
Ryan was in the Dáil using a procedure that allowed him, as
Minister, under the
same standing order 187, to lay out a motion
without debate giving a direct order to the Select Committee dealing
with the
Climate Bill that it could consider all amendments allegedly outside
the
provisions of the Bill, but which did not include the amendments on
fracking. Chairman
Leddin then declared all the fracking amendments to be ruled “out of order”
and to be quashed without debate and unable to proceed to the floor
of the Dáil for a vote.
By
using his powers as chairman to rule
amendments on fracking and amendments for a legislative ban on fracked
gas
imports out of order, Chairman
Leddin has
decided for all the members of the Climate Committee that this question
cannot
be brought to the Dáil floor for a vote. As
this is a decision with
far-reaching national and international consequences, Chairman Leddin
must be
seen to observe the highest ethical standards and even a perceived
conflict of
interest should be declared.
However, the provisions of the bill
are
very clear as they are “to
provide for the approval of plans by the Government in relation to
climate
change for the purpose of pursuing the transition to a low carbon,
climate
resilient and environmentally sustainable economy”. Ruling a climate-mitigation initiative
of
banning fracked gas imports as “not
relevant to the provisions of the Climate Bill” would appear counter-intuitive and therefore seem
to have been done, from my view, in a very subjective manner and under
very
questionable and tenuous legal grounds. 'Plans'
(and other words in the bill such as "climate-resilient",
"sustainable" and "climate justice") are not even defined
in the Act or the Bill and are therefore clearly open to
interpretation. Chairman Leddin from my
perception could, if there is a perceived conflict of interest on his
part,
have used those
words for his own
political advantage to stop amendments on a ban on fracked gas imports
from
being debated in the Dáil. The red warning
signals should have been
going off in his brain at this point of a possible perceived conflict
of
interest on his part, given his long history with ARUP and for this
reason I am
deeply troubled by his decisions.
When Chairman Leddin signed the letter
declaring the
amendments proposing a legislative ban on fracked gas imports to be out
of
order his decision kept the door open for the new planning application
by
Shannon LNG. On March 1st, Shannon LNG confirmed
to the Department for the Environment that it is in "pre-application
consultation with An Bord Pleanála" and that it would "launch
a public information event shortly, and subject to ABP's
guidance, submit the application quickly thereafter".
As Chairman of the Climate Committee
Chairman Leddin is an
office-holder under ethics legislation.
The code
of conduct for office holders
states in 1.3 that “office
holders
must at all times observe, and be seen to observe, the highest
standards of
ethical behaviour in the carrying out of the functions of their office”.
I
await your urgent feedback
Yours
sincerely
John
McElligott
'Safety
Before LNG'
Island
View,
Convent
Street,
Listowel,
County
Kerry.
Telephone:
087-2804474
Email:
[email protected]
http://www.SafetyBeforeLNG.ie
2.
2:
https://www.independent.ie/news/environment/review-of-climate-bill-decisions-urged-over-tds-former-links-with-gas-consulting-firm-40513458.html
ENDS
Contact:
John McElligott
Safety Before LNG
(087-2804474)
[email protected]
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