The Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility, a church investor group that pressures companies on their social policies, has backed a campaign by a group of Irish farmers to get energy group Shell to move a proposed new gas processing plant to a "safer" location.

However, in a statement this morning Shell rejected the suggestion, saying there was "no possibility of the site being moved." Shell believes it has gone far enough by proposing an alternate route for a pipeline connecting the existing site to a costal terminal, which was the original genesis of the dispute.