Louth County Council Supports Rossport Campaign.

national | rights, freedoms and repression | press release Wednesday July 20, 2005 10:25 by matt

Louth County Council passes SF motion in support of Rossport 5

Louth County Council Supports Rossport Campaign.

 

The July monthly meeting of Louth County Council unanimously supported the Rossport campaign this week. Sinn Féin County Councillor Jim Loughran proposed the following motion;

 

"Whereas the 1992 flawed Gas Exploration Legislation represents an extremely bad deal for the Irish people offering foreign companies licenses allowing for extraction with little impact to our communities.

 

Whereas the deal agreed by the then Minister Ray Burke to offer the Gas in the Corrib field gives no royalties to the Irish Government, an extraordinarily low rate of tax, even that can be written off by the consortium including Shell and Statoil.

 

Whereas Shell is deeply involved in the genocidal campaign against the Ogoni people in Nigeriaand is associated with the Government which hung 9 people defending the rights of the Ogoni tribe including the acclaimed poet Ken Saro Wiwa in 1995.

 

Whereas local communities in Ballinaboy, North Mayo must suffer Shell’s employment of new and untested technology to pipe high pressure gas from the Corrib field through bog areas which have been subject to recent landslides.

 

Whereas these pressures are 400 times that used in the national grid pipeline and the gas being piped by Shell is uncleaned and untreated. Experts indicate that should this experimental technology explode, people and houses would be incinerated at a radius greater than that between the pipelines and local communities.

 

Whereas on 29th June 2005, five local farm owners in Ballinaboy community were jailed indefinitely for legitimately protesting the construction of this deadly pipeline near their homes and on their land.

 

This Council resolves to support the campaign of those demanding the immediate release of the Ballinaboy Five. It further calls upon the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resourcesto suspend operations in North Mayo pending a few review of all aspects of the project including licensing terms and the safety of the proposed pipeline.".

 

In proposing the motion Councillor Loughran highlighted the bad deal that the Irish people are getting from Shell. He informed the meeting that there is estimated to be from €13 billion to €24 billion worth of gas in the Corrib field yet the Irish nation was to receive no royalties in a deal struck by the discreditted politician Ray Burke.

 

Councillor Loughran described how the type of engineering being proposed in Mayo is unacceptable on health and safety grounds. He stated that he believed that no councillor in Louth would tolerate such a pipeline in their county and that the five prisoners were fighting to protect their homes and environment.

 

Fine Gaels Michael O'Dowd amended the last paragraph to state that the council resolves to support the campaign of those seeking (and not demanding) the immediate release of the Ballinaboy Five. Although the Sinn Féin members did not support this amendment they were happy that the sentiment of the motion was unanimously supported by all parties.

 

Speaking at a Sinn Féin meeting this week Councillor Loughran stated;

 

"We achieved all-party support for the 5 men and their campaign. It is now for Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour to come on board with the campaign and ensure their party leaders strongly endorse this campaign. In north Louth, the Minister for Communications Marine and Natural Resources is actively considering granting a prospecting licence across the Cooley mountains. We do not want a Rossport situaltion arising here."