Eamon Ryan gets free seat on bus to Bellanaboy

mayo | miscellaneous | news report Monday November 05, 2007 15:14 by Dublin Shell to Sea

Green TD has been prominent campaigner for Shell to Sea

Dublin Shell to Sea has offered Minister Eamon Ryan TD a free seat on its bus to Co Mayo for the major sit-down blockade planned for next Friday (9th November) at Shell's inland refinery site at Bellanaboy.

Eamon Ryan addresses the crowd at a Shell to Sea rally in O'Connell St on July 23rd, 2005 (pic: William Hederman)

Ryan was a prominent Shell to Sea campaigner and a vocal critic of the Corrib Gas project for several years prior to joining the government in June 2007. He now has responsibility for the project, as Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.

Friday's blockade will mark one year since a baton-charge by gardai on peaceful protestors at Bellanaboy and 12 years since the execution of nine anti-Shell activists in Ogoniland by the Nigerian government (10th November 1995).

At their national conference in February 2007, the Green Party adopted a resolution that, in government, it would not sign a pipeline consent for the Corrib gas project until “a full, independent review” had been conducted into the project.

Upon his appointment as Minister last June, Ryan acknowledged that the party would be reneging on this commitment.

A message on the Green Party website in December 2005 stated that the party was urging "all members of the Green Party ... to support and join the Shell to Sea Campaign", and was "pressing for the gas to be refined at sea ... We must continue our efforts in support of this campaign which has every chance of success."

Speaking in Dáil Éireann on November 24th, 2005, Eamon Ryan raised the question of the perceived independence of An Bord Pleanála: "When An Bord Pleanála made its decision on the first planning application for a gas terminal building in Bellanaboy, the inspector ... concluded that the proposed site was unequivocally an incorrect choice."

"Anyone who examines from the outside the process that led to a decision being made on the appeal in this instance would agree that it was not conducted in an open and fair manner. ... I have serious concerns that the Government constantly took Shell's side, in effect, throughout this process. ... I contend that he [Taoiseach Bertie Ahern] put remarkable and untold pressure on An Bord Pleanála to accept the Government's will and to do the right thing in this case."

Dublin Shell to Sea is awaiting a response from Minister Ryan to its offer of a free seat. Other Dublin-based campaigners will be paying 30 euro return (or 25 euro for unwaged) for the bus journey, which leaves Parnell Square North at 6.30pm on Thursday 8th November. Phone 085-1609850 for bus information.

Meanwhile, in an Irish Times online poll last week, 84 per cent of respondents felt that Shell's Corrib Gas project would not be good for the local community:
http://www.ireland.com/head2head/archive/