Eirgrid
has now been drawn in to the growing scandal of the over €30 million
reported as having been paid by New Fortress Energy to Irish State
Bodies during its failed planning application for its proposed
Shannon LNG US fracked gas import after Shannon LNG informed An Bord
Pleanála in November that it paid €3.5 million to Eirgrid, which, it says, it
will lose if it does not get planning permission in a third attempt
before November 4th, 2024.
The payments of €31.9 million that we know about break down as follows:
- €3.5 million to EirGrid: In recent weeks, having lost
all permissions last September for both an LNG terminal and power
station, Shannon LNG confirmed it had begun a pre-application
consultation with An Bord Pleanála regarding a proposal for a
new LNG facility on the Shannon estuary, which it said was in line with
Minister Ryan’s proposals in the Energy Security Strategy. In November,
the company already separately completed pre-application consultation
with An Bord Pleanála for a new 600MW
power plant on the site, in which it confirmed that it would lose the €3.5 million deposit it paid Eirgrid for
373MW of auction capacity it was awarded in April 2023 if
the power station does not get planning permission by the 4th of
November 2024.
- €2.4 million to Kerry County Council: Kerry
County Council requested and was paid over €2.4 million by Shannon LNG
after its planning permission for an onshore LNG terminal expired in
2018 and before it lodged a new planning application for a floating LNG
teminal and 600 MW power station in Tarbert in 2021. Fine Gael Councillor Jim
Finucane told the Irish Independent Newspaper
that these payments were "good faith"
contributions made by a company that was committed to the area. In May 2023, the Irish Ombudsman's office ruled
that a complaint about the millions of euros paid by Shannon LNG to Kerry
County Council before it lodged its latest planning application for an
LNG terminal in Tarbert, County Kerry was "outside the remit of
the Ombudsman and would be a matter for An Garda Siochána on the basis
that corruption itself is a crime"
- €25 million to Shannon Group
(formerly Shannon Development), under the auspices of the Minister for
Transport Eamon Ryan, for the entire 600-acres of the
Tarbert-Ballylongford Landbank, on or before December 2021 at a time
when it was against Government policy on the importation of fracked gas to allow an LNG terminal to be permitted or proceeded with.
In January, EirGrid's Ten-Year
Generation Capacity Statement 2023-2032 noted: "
Since
last year’s GCS, 455 MW of previously awarded capacity has been
withdrawn and the developers have paid termination charges. This is in
addition to the previous 630 MW which was terminated. This means that
most new predictable capacity that was expected to come online over the
coming years has now withdrawn".
If an ordinary person paid out huge sums of money to State Bodies
before a decision was made on his or her planning application, there
would be uproar, but barely an eyebrow is raised when Shannon LNG does
it. It is clear that the payments of over €30 million by Shannon LNG to
Irish State Bodies as it was going through the planning process raise
serious issues of concern and are scandalous!
Both EirGrid and Shannon Group are the responsibility of Green Party leader, Minister Eamon Ryan!
ENDS
Contact:
John McElligott - Tel.: 087-2804474 - Email:
[email protected]
www.SafetyBeforeLNG.ie
