Open Letter to Noel Dempsey - Minister for Natural Resources, Marine & Communications.

mayo | environment | news report

Sunday July 30, 2006 00:56

by Niall Harnett - Shell to Sea.

A few questions for Minister Noel Dempsey in light of his acceptance of Peter Cassells' report and it's recommendations with regard to the Shell Corrib Gas Project.

Minister Dempsey,

Following the publication of Peter Cassells' report and your subsequent question and answer sessions with journalists and news crews, I'm hoping you might take some more time to answer a few more questions and elaborate a bit on what you talked about yesterday.

I look forward to hearing from you, please use the 'add your comments' link at bottom right to publish your answers here. Please be honest and don't worry about causing offence with frank answers.

Thank you,

Niall Harnett.

In terms of Shell and the Government's approach to the concerns of the community you say that there are "some genuine concerns that if they had been detected earlier that would have been helpful".

- What concerns specifically do you recognise as the genuine concerns of the community?

You say that you "believe that The Rossport Five don’t reflect the overall views of the community generally".

- What information have you got to substantiate that belief? Have you or Peter Cassells done any kind of survey of opinion in the area and if so please could you publish the results?

You say that "There are people in particular who claim to be speaking on behalf of all of the community and it’s quite clear that that’s not true".

- What information have you got that will show this to be 'quite clear' and can you share that information with us please?

You say that you "think that finding a solution that will satisfy everybody is impossible, because there are some people that just don’t want to be satisfied".

I presume 'some people' refers to The Rossport Five and the Shell to Sea campaigners who will argue that this campaign is working not only to satisfy and address the local needs and concerns of a community but also the wider national interest in terms of responsible management of our natural resources.

- What aspects of the Corrib Gas Project do you say are of benefit to the community in terms of satisfying their concerns and interests?

You say that you are "concerned to find a solution that all ‘reasonable’ people will accept reasonably … and I think we have that now".

I think it would be fair to say that the note of sarcasm in your use of the word 'reasonable', would mean that you consider the position of the Rossport Five and the Shell to Sea campaign to be 'unreasonable'.

This is an important question, please answer it as fully and clearly as you can.

- What do you find unreasonable about the Shell to Sea campaign?

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Comments (3 of 3)

No response, No surprise - No Entry.

by Niall

Sat Sep 23, 2006 17:51

clare at shelltosea dot com

Did we ever think we'd get a response from Noel Dempsey to this letter.

No.

Why not?

Because Noel Dempsey has no argument in favour of this project. There is none. He will not debate or engage. He will only spin and lie in attempts to control shallow mainstream media and public opinion.

We might have hoped for a reply, even private, considering my phone chats with officials in the Dept of Marine, Energy & Natural Resources. After I gave my email to them I was assured that the minister was 'obliged' to reply to me within 21 days. This 'obligation' was then quickly qualified by Mr. Maurice O'Connell to the effect that this obligation was not 'legal' but simply part of the 'customer charter', his tone being clear in that even he doesn't place much weight on customer charter commitments or even obligations.

They know the score in that department, as do we.
Customer Charters ... Corporate Social Responsiblity Reports etc. All lies, calculated and purposely designed to deceive.

I thought maybe this week I might get back on to the Dept. and ask a few questions about all this, but why should I bother when I know in this case it's completely irrelevant what Minister Noel Dempsey has or hasn't got to say about it. He is no public representative.

The relevant public representatives are to be found at the gates of Bellanaboy, acting on behalf of the wider community with signatures of support in the high 90's%, contrary to Shell's lies.

Shell have announced their intentions to restart work on the Bellanaboy refinery site this coming week. Noel Dempsey said recently that the site is the property of Shell and local people are breaking the law in refusing them entry. 'Grilled Paddy Wagons' have been patrolling the area in the last 24 hours. See http://www.indymedia.ie/article/78574

The righteousness of this struggle is evident in the fearlessness of Shell to Sea.

As Willie Corduff puts it: "Shell aren't getting in, end of story. They should have realised it by now, we've told them often enough".