Deputy Michael Healy Rae TD has said that the Government has left the North Kerry Region in a state of devastation with news that the Shannon LNG €650m liquefied natural gas facility has been rejected by An Bord Pleanála.
Despite Green Party opposition to the construction of an LNG terminal from the start of the project, Deputy Michael Healy Rae TD has called on representatives of both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail in Kerry to answer on their inability to deliver on a project in which “they spent the last 20 years promising to the people of Kerry”
“Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have been chasing each other around North Kerry land bank taking pictures with their leaders on every visit to the site, promising a new future, a better future and a secure future. Well it is easy for them today to take their photos with no future for the place.”
“This project was more than just the jobs for North Kerry and Shannon area, it was also about a security of energy supply with a 600MW power plant at the site. Needed now more than ever due to the Ukraine/Russia conflict.
“The Environment Minister Eamon Ryan who made no secret in his opposition to the construction of an LNG terminal in Ireland, has today ensured a bleak outcome for North Kerry, but I’d imagine he won’t mind too much tonight as he pushes on with his make it up as you go policies on offshore wind energy farms which will take years before they come on stream.
Permission was granted in 2007 for an LNG regasification terminal but there were legal challenges, and an extension of permission was quashed by the High Court in 2020.
In August 2021, Shannon LNG Ltd, a subsidiary of New Fortress Energy, applied to An Bórd Pleanála for permission to build a power plant on the Tarbert/Ballylongford landbank.
The planning application proposed to develop a liquefied natural gas terminal, including a floating storage and regasification unit and onshore receiving facilities on the 52-hectare site.
