Shell to Sea Campaign seek to influence 2007 General Election

national | politics / elections | news report Sunday July 02, 2006 21:12 by Shell to Sea dublinshelltosea at gmail dot com

FF/PD's said to be worried by campaign's widespread support outside Mayo

Politicians from several political ideologies gathered at the gates of Leinster House on Tuesday 27th June to meet campaigners from Dublin and Mayo who wished to draw attention to a new leaflet on the issue of the Corrib Gas scheme.

Joe Higgins from the Socialist Party, Mary Lou McDonald and Arthur Morgan from Sinn Féin, and Dan Boyle, Eamonn Ryan and John Gormley from the Green Party, were joined by Independent TD Jerry Cowley as they met some of wives of men who were imprisoned last year for protesting against the government-backed scheme to install a dangerous, experimental pipeline scheme through a residential area in north west Mayo.

Mary Corduff, Maureen McGrath and Caitlín Úi Sheighin travelled to Dublin from Rossport to give interviews and pose for pictures to raise the profile of the campaign's new leaflet, aimed at informing voters in next year's election of the facts surrounding the contentious Corrib scheme.

Although Joe Costello of the Labour Party was also present, it's not clear whether Labour would allow work on Shell's project to continue in the event of a Fine Gael-Labour coalition government.

As well as the well-known safety concerns, the leaflet draws attention to aspects of the deal which allow the enormously valuable natural gas stocks off the Irish coast to be given away for nothing to Shell, Statoil and Marathon Oil. In straightforward language, the reader is informed of the background to what a former Labour Party minister called "an act of economic treason". Future contracts will be awarded on the same basis, unless politicians re-write the legislation dealing with licenses for oil and gas exploration.

The Shell to Sea campaign are asking people to write to their elected representatives and all those seeking their vote, and ask what their intentions are regarding this situation.

People are also asked to consider whether compulsory purchase orders should be used to advance the interests of private companies, rather than for projects which benefit the community, like roads and hospitals. Readers are left in no doubt that the use of compulsory purchase and acquisition rights like this will undoubtedly spread to other parts of the country if Shell are allowed to succeed in Mayo, adding a national dimension to what many have previously seen as a local issue.

If the Corrib scheme becomes reality, similiar situations will arise in Dublin and elsewhere.

Voters are asked to think about their politicians' role in expediting big business interests, to the detriment of their own rights and freedoms.

Thousands of the leaflets are to be delivered door-to-door in Dublin and beyond. Particular care is being taken to target constituencies where the campaign has identified vulnerable coalition-held seats.

Fianna Fáil backbenchers, many of whom rely on transfers from left-wing parties to get elected, are expected to be alarmed at the prospect of losing votes because of a scheme from which they and their party will (like the rest of the country) gain nothing.

A recent Irish Times poll showed that 15% of Fianna Fáil's own core supporters think the Corrib Scheme should be scrapped. Recent internal FF polls are said to show that the party will face significant losses in Dublin if current trends continue.