Rossport 5 get an urgent call to Court out of sequence.

national | crime and justice | opinion/analysis Tuesday July 12, 2005 15:36 by m.m. mc carron - Ogoni Solidarity Ieland

Shell project in splits and phases: the jigsaw in Court.

The High Court meets again on Thursday at 10.00 am. There is confusion about what is preparation, constuction etc. etc. For the lay observer a call to rescind all project consents by the Minister might be in order at this point.
No mention at all of the QRA and if Shell has produced all the documents ordered by the Judge previously. Project splitting comes across as a very primitive procedure in this day and age. Now there are phases as well as splits and one wonders if the Minister has time for all of them and why the project comes in this format. Good job building a house does not come in splits and phases with the planning authorities. Now the floors, now the windows, now the septic tank......!

Yesterday at around noon a phone call informed Shell To Sea that contrary to the Legal Diary the Rossport 5 were being brought to the High Court for a Hearing. The case was diaried for two Mentions at 10.30 and 11.00 am in the morning and the case had been appointed by the Judge last week to Wednesday 13 July even though Shell last week had proposed Monday which was yesterday. There remains uncertainty at the very sudden changes to the Legal Diary yesterday.
The message to the prison was unexpected and sudden as well but the men arrived in time for the scheduled Hearing. Luckily several family members who travelled from Mayo had had their family visits earlier in the morning and the sudden news allowed them to rush to the High Court to be present. Shell to Sea along with a number of other groups were scrambled to demonstrate outside the Court.
It was a very long wait from 2 to 4 pm on a very hot afternoon. The case came up well after 3pm. and for the public who have hearing rights in Court difficult to follow.