The hearing will consider the environmental impact of SEPIL’s amended onshore pipeline route, which was submitted in May 2010.

Consent to construct the proposed Corrib Gas Pipeline was first granted in 2002. The pipeline project includes an approximately 83 km offshore section, which was completed in 2009, and a 9 km onshore section.

The pipeline is planned to bring gas from the Corrib Gas Field, located 83 km off the northwest coast of Ireland, onshore.

However in 2005, local residents’ concerns about the operating pressure of the pipeline and its proximity to housing resulted in an independent mediator, appointed by the Irish Government, recommending that the onshore section of the pipeline be re-routed. SEPIL also agreed to limit the pressure of the onshore section of the pipeline to 14.4 MPa.

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In February 2009 and May 2010 SEPIL submitted revised applications to construct the Corrib Gas Pipeline along the new route to ABP, the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, and to the Coastal Zone Management Division of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

This revised application outlines details for the routeing and construction of the pipeline through Sruwaddacon Bay, which will involve tunnelling the pipeline under the Bay. The distance to the nearest occupied house has been increased to 234 m, which is more than three times the distance of the originally approved 2002 route.

The revised application also reduces the maximum allowable operating pressure of the pipeline to 10 MPa and the normal operating pressure to 8.5 MPa, which is similar to that of Bord Gáis Éireann’s transmission lines located throughout the country.

Further statutory consents are required from the Department of Communications Energy and Natural Resources and the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government respectively before construction work on the onshore pipeline can commence.

Currently Ireland imports 96 per cent of its gas supplies from Europe via the interconnector pipeline from the UK.

The Corrib Gas Pipeline is intended to secure Ireland’s gas supply in the event of political instability or an interruption of Russian gas supplies to Europe.