‘I’ve no regrets on how I handled LNG and turf-cutting’

JIMMY has no regrets over his handling, as minister, of two controversies on his doorstep that undoubtedly cost him dearly at the last election, Shannon LNG and the ban on turf-cutting on Moanveanlagh Bog.

The Government of which he was a cabinet member was, he feels, unfairly perceived as not having done enough to facilitate the plan for a gas terminal on the Ballylongford Landbank.

And he had no choice as Minister for the Arts and Heritage but to enact the ban on turf-cutting on Moanveanlagh Bog north of Listowel where his own relations once drew turf.

“The point with LNG is that the then owners Hess LNG had decided not to go ahead with it, but it was definitely something that was used against me in my time in government.

“I met John Hess in January of 2012 in New York at a time when we had everything in place, all the planning and permits. I asked him when they were going to go ahead with it and he told me ‘it has to make business sense’. They had spent €60 million on Shannon LNG by then, but had also just pulled out of a similar project in Boston after spending €150 million on it.”

He said that John Hess was sincerely committed to the Kerry project ‘ but the fact it went on too long and the objections didn’t help, but by the time these hurdles were cleared Hess LNG had changed its policy.”

Moanveanlagh sounded a bitter note to the very start of his tenure as Arts and Heritage Minister in the very first brief across his desk.

“I saw the danger straight away. Moanveanlagh was designated under the Habitats Directive in 2004 but Fianna Fáil gave a ten-year moratorium on it. When I became Minister for the Arts and Heritage it was the very first thing that came across my desk.

“I had no choice as a minister but to enact the legislation. I went to the EU commissioner responsible for the area asking to review the matter and he was postively hostile. He was very clear it could not be reviewed at a time when our reputation in Europe was in tatters because of how we handled our financial affairs.

Failure to uphold the directive would have resulted in swingeing penalties for the State.

“I was directed by the Taoiseach and the Attorney General to enact the law, which I did, that was my duty as Minister and I had to uphold the law.”