Wake up- the Government is giving away Ireland's resources!

national | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Wednesday December 06, 2006 03:43 by Amanda Slevin amandaslevin at hotmail dot com

The Government is giving away Ireland's natural resources without any benefits to Ireland!

The Government (through the Petroleum Affairs Division) estimate that there is at least 10 billion barrels of oil or gas equivalent in the North Atlantic Margin which is the area between Malin Head (Donegal) and Kerry and includes the Corrib Gas Field. Considering this is an underestimated potential and using recent figures we are looking at least €780 billion of our country's natural resources going directly into the hands of multinational companies. The 25% tax rate is an absolute joke as all possible taxes are offset against production costs, the companies including Shell, Statoil, Marathon, Island oil etc will pay very little if any tax and stand to make billions of euros profit from our country's resources. The companies DO NOT HAVE TO PUT A PENNY OF PROFIT FROM OUR COUNTRY'S RESOURCES BACK INTO OUR COUNTRY.

It is no coincidence that Tony O' Reilly's papers (“The Independent” etc) has been extremely negative towards the Rossport campaign - look at the billions of euros he stands to make from our country's resources in Kerry while our country will not benefit from its own wealth. Our west coast is under siege from a range of gas and oil companies - there are four exploration licenses outstanding in Donegal alone. Shell has licenses for most of the blocks from Gweedore to the Corrib Gas field, yet we all sit back and watch while the Government holds the community in Rossport to ransom for their attempts to protect their community over legitimate health and safety concerns.Bellanaboy is the forerunner for the other blocks that Shell have been given and if the Bellanaboy refinery is completed, it is extremely likely that gas from other areas (including Donegal) will be piped to Mayo for processing.

The seriously questionable practices of the Government mean that the resources of Ireland belonging to the people of Ireland, have been given away to multinational (and predominantly non Irish) companies, without any consideration towards the people of Ireland. Why would a Government give away billions of euros worth of a country’s resources without any benefit to its actual country and its people? Why do the Norwegian people and Shell’s stakeholders stand to make more from Ireland’s resources than Ireland itself?

The weak and unproven argument that the Government cannot afford to drill itself does not wash anymore – the State actually conducts the surveys which indicates where the gas/ oil reserves are and the value of the different blocks. They then SELL this information to the likes of Shell, Statoil and Providence. In terms of the state being unable to afford to drill – it costs around €30 to establish an economically viable well or refinery. How many billions have the Government wasted on inoperable electronic voting machines; PPARS; dog and horse racing tracks etc? Our Health service is falling to pieces with the Government complaining of budgetary restraints as their excuse for poor provision; yet they hand over the long term solution to the crises to Shell and friends. There are also estimates of billions of euros surplus in the forthcoming budget – why can this money not be used by the State to explore and drill for gas? The resulting profits could then be used to solve the infrastructural and systemic flaws in Ireland instead of Irish money and resources being given away.

Forget the excuses, the exploration and drilling licenses for Ireland’s gas and oil are fundamentally flawed and must be changed to protect and benefit the people and resources of Ireland.