For the past two years, a small, isolated, part-Gaeltacht community in County Mayo has, on the authority of the Government, been bullied and harassed by major oil and gas companies in order to railroad it into accepting the running of pipelines that will contain raw, untreated gas at unprecedented pressure through their area and an industrial refinery in the heart of what is one of the most pristine and beautiful parts of the country.

The Government has put the Garda Síochána in the position of acting almost as a private army for the notorious Shell oil corporation, a company that has left a trail of environmental destruction around the world. The Garda has used totally unacceptable and heavy-handed tactics against the people of Erris. Let us scotch, once and for all, the spurious propaganda put abroad by some Government politicians and elements of the media that outsiders are going into Erris and causing trouble as if the local people were puppets on a string. The entire protest has been directed by members of the local community and is designed to protect the locality and its natural resources.

I wish to illustrate what the people of the area are being obliged to endure. On 16 October, when three other Independent Deputies and I held, in a totally peaceful context, a press conference and a meeting with local people at Bellanaboy, two members of the Garda with video cameras intruded upon it and filmed the proceedings in their entirety. We complained to the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice Equality and Law Reform in respect of what must be an unprecedented action on the part of members of the Garda Síochána in intruding upon Members of the Oireachtas carrying out their representational functions, but we have not yet received a reply. If the Taoiseach was meeting a Fianna Fáil cumann in north Mayo, is he of the view that members of the Garda would barge in and make a video recording of proceedings as if he were a criminal? The verbal and physical abuse to which members of the community to which I refer have been subjected is reprehensible.

A number of Independent Deputies do not fully agree with all the demands of the people of Rossport. However, we all want justice for those people and their community. Deputy Cowley has staunchly represented the community when others turned away. In recent times, a new initiative has been undertaken by the Shell to Sea campaign, directed by the local community, in respect of bringing into being an independent public commission which would conduct public hearings and in respect of which community consent would be a fundamental criterion. Opinion polls carried out in Mayo and nationally indicate that a majority of the people support their counterparts in Erris in demanding that the Shell facility be placed offshore in order that the intrusion, pollution and danger it might cause can be avoided.

The initiative to which I refer has been dismissed with an arrogance that only the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources can summon. Will the Taoiseach accept the initiative and put into being a new process under which this issue might be resolved?

When Deputy Joe Higgins and other Members of the House raised this matter a few years ago, I supported the carrying out of a further examination of the safety and security issues and the procurement of outside and independent international advice in this regard. The Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, spent a year carrying out such an examination.

I am aware that the site development work relating to the Corrib gas terminal at Bellanaboy is continuing. I am also aware that protesters continue to attempt to block workers from entering the site. I respect the right of people to protest but I am strongly of the view that employees also have the right to travel to work unimpeded.

I have no reason to argue about these issues. There has been unprecedented consultation and deliberation in respect of them. It was a long process and separate statutory approvals and consent had to be obtained. Licences were required in respect of six separate elements of the project. Under the Continental Shelf Act 1968, everything had to be examined in respect of the construction of the onshore installation. That was completed on 15 April.

Matters also had to be examined in the context of the Petroleum and Minerals Development Act 1960, a process that concluded on 15 April 2002, and the Gas Act 1976, as amended, deliberations in respect of which also concluded in 2002. An integral part of the plan for the development was approved on 15 April 2005. A foreshore licence was approved, under the Foreshore Act 1993, as amended, in respect of the routing of the pipelines through the foreshore connecting the gasfield to the land-based installation. Under the Planning Acts, in respect of the land-based installation — the terminal — this was a condition of the plan of development approval and An Bord Pleanála granted planning permission in October 2004 for the gas terminal and the associated disposition site subject to 42 conditions.

Under the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992, an integrated pollution control licence for the operation of the terminal was issued. This is a condition of the plan of development approval and is under negotiation with the EPA. In addition to these and the issues to which I referred earlier, the Minister issued compulsory acquisition rights orders and compulsory purchase orders. Environmental impact assessments were carried out and an environmental impact statement completed. All these statutory processes have been gone through and most had been completed when I supported the independent assessment that was carried out. These matters are finished and the Deputy will agree that an end position is sometimes reached in a case. That was reached some time ago.

The matter is not finished. The Taoiseach is dealing with a county and a community that introduced the word "boycott" into the English language when the agents of an imperial power imposed on the local community. History is repeating itself in a different way. The investigations to which the Taoiseach referred were not comprehensive enough to take into account all the issues of crucial importance to the community. An Bord Pleanála reversed the decision of one of its key inspectors. No planning permission was needed for the pipeline through Rossport on the basis of the Alice in Wonderland logic that it was an offshore pipeline, even though it will be laid six miles inland.

The Government has no problem giving away our natural resources for nothing to multinational corporations, as it has done in the case of the Corrib gas field, Aer Lingus, Telecom Éireann and other critical infrastructure. Apart from other considerations, does the Taoiseach ever think of his own legacy in this regard? He has said in a few years he will hang his flower baskets full time. Does he want as a permanent legacy the destruction of a landscape of great beauty by the imposition of an entirely inappropriate industrial and polluting entity so that a few dollars more profit can be made by the notorious Shell oil corporation? Will the Taoiseach recognise that, unless the Government has community consent, which it does not, the issue is not finished? Will he grant the independent commission? When the Independent Deputies raised the issue of natural resources during Private Members' business, the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources said he would revisit the terms under which licences are given to major corporations. Has that been done? When will the outcome of the review be known so that at least the people will receive royalties from their own natural resources?

I have no reason to argue with the Deputy about this. He knows the legislative, governance and safety processes have been gone through extensively. The Government was anxious that safety issues would be re-examined and international experts were independently hired following a procurement process——

The refinery dictates the location of the pipeline.

Allow the Taoiseach to continue without interruption.

——to undertake a detailed analysis of the entire case and that has happened.

It has not. That is a nonsense.

The Taoiseach, without interruption.

They examined the issues in minute detail. Deputy Joe Higgins is aware this has happened. I have made it clear that work should continue on the Corrib gas field, which is a major national infrastructural project.

For whom? For Shell, to make the company even richer.

Deputy Cowley owes it to his colleague, Deputy Joe Higgins, to allow him hear the answer to his question. He is the leader of the Deputy's group.

The Taoiseach is talking total and utter rubbish. Advantica and Cassells——

I ask the Deputy to resume his seat.

The project also has the potential to play a significant role in the economic and social regeneration of Mayo and the north-west region.

There will be no reduction in gas prices. We will pay the same as previously. It is not as if we will be getting it from Russia.

The project will facilitate the improvement of the region's infrastructure and increase local employment in both the short term and the long term.

That is a total nonsense. Where will people get jobs?

When the Chair is on his feet, the Deputy should resume his seat. I ask him to show courtesy to his colleagues. There are three Leaders' Questions and only leaders are entitled to put a question. The Taoiseach replies and no other Member is entitled to intervene.

The development will also increase security of energy supply by providing a reliable and secure indigenous source of gas.

Deputy Joe Higgins correctly said I hope some day to look after my baskets and flower pots but I hope the horticultural industry will have the benefit of gas from Bellanaboy and the Corrib field rather than Russia by then because that would be much better.

The Taoiseach is a basket case.

The gas might as well come from Russia.

So much for defending the workers.