Mayo County Council is to call on the government to renegotiate Shell deal
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Monday March 19, 2007 01:43
by local press reader
Sin Féin say “the most banana of republics” have done better deals with regard to their natural resources.
The current edition of the Mayo Advertiser carries an article on proceedings at Mayo Council's monthly meeting.
This month, Sinn Féin Cllr Gerry Murray proposed a motion calling on the Council to demand that the government renegotiate the current deal, whereby all the profits of the sale of the natural gas in the Corrib field will leave the country and go to the shareholders in Shell, Statoil and Marathon Oil.
Sinn Féin want to know why the money can't fund hospitals, schools, and other infrastructure projects in this country.
Cllr Murray pressed the FG Cllr present to say whether whether if, should that party be in govt after the general election, Enda Kenny would continue with the present policy of giving away the country's resources, but no answer was forthcoming.
The first part of the article is below and their is a link to the full piece: http://www.mayoadvertiser.com/index.php?aid=1316
Mayo ADVERTISER
Current Publication Date: 16/03/2007
County council to call for renegotiation of Corrib gas deal
by Fiona McGarry
Mayo County Council is to call on the government to renegotiate all deals regarding Ireland’s natural resources, including the Corrib gas field.
The decision was made unanimously at this week’s meeting of Mayo County Council, on foot of a motion from Sinn Féin Councillor Gerry Murray. While there was mass support for reviewing what Fine Gael Cllr Seamus Weir described as “a horrible deal”, a number of councillors warned against making a political football of the Corrib gas issue.
Outlining his motion, Cllr Murray said that “the most banana of republics” had done better deals with regard to their natural resources. Instead of funding Mayo’s infrastructure and vital services, the SF councillor said, the billions of euro generated by the gas field would go to fund health care and education in Norway. He said that while the resource had been “signed away for nothing”, the government could follow the example of other countries who were now claiming back up to half of what they had given to oil and gas companies. In response to what Cllr Murray described as “a very reasonable request”, Labour Cllr Johnny Mee seconded the motion and noted that Labour minister Justin Keating had attempted to secure a better deal for the people of Ireland. He said he had nothing against Shell, but wanted the “best possible outcome” for the people of Rossport, many of whom had travelled to Castlebar for the fifth month in a row to watch the meeting from the public gallery.
Comments (5 of 5)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5Fine Gael know that the pipeline will have to go off-shore. What the party was merely saying was that there was a procedure there for mediation.
If the goverment of the day deceided that the deal should be renegotiated (which it should) can they do it
was the agreement not a contract with proctection under irish law, or can they simply tear it up?
Recent evidence form Bolivia and Russia implies that the energy companies fall into line when national governments take them on, but that sort of standoff may not even be necessary.
Many people have pointed out that since Ray Burke was found to be dishonest by a tribunal then his decisions while minister should be looked at again. No harm for FG to bring public attention to the Haughey/Burke era and remind voters of how closely Ahern was mixed up with that gang.
In the UK, Gordon Brown recently brought in a windfall tax on the ouil companies. If something like that was done here, then we could use the money to subsidise SHell to go off shore (if we wanted to be generous).
I know about what happened in russia, but could fg just tear up the contract and rewrite it, or would irish law proctect shell.
Has anybody looked into it, can it be done without costing the taxpayers billions in breach of contract penelties
Pat Rabbite seems to have answered this question a couple of hours ago, as to whether existing contracts can be re-negotiated that is.
Pat has warned big business not to sign any contracts with the current government with regard to private health centres on public property, prior to the elections, as he will, if put into office, scrap Mary Harney's policy of building these 'super clinics.'
http://www.irishexaminer.com/breaking/story.asp?j=17564...09&x=
So are established contracts re-negotiable?
Certainly, especially when they violate the laws and citizens of this country. And especially in a country where the concept of sovereignty is something other than lip service.
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