Dublin Shell to Sea

Text of Dublin Shell to Sea leaflet in response to the (1st) jailing of Maura Harrington in March.  Works for the new jailng two as most of it focuses on the great gas rip off.  It's attached as a PDF file, print som out and distribute them.

Retired schoolteacher jailed

Political policing has reached a new low in Mayo with the jailing of retired school principal Maura Harrington for 28 days for allegedly slapping a Garda. The alleged slap took place when Shell attempted to gain access to private land with a digger in 2007. 20 local people were injured by gardai during this incident but no gardai have been charged. Shell later admitted they had no permission to enter the land. In the past month gardai have handed out 25 new summonses to anti-Shell campaigners in Mayo in an attempt to clear the way for Shell to bring the Corrib gas pipeline ashore this year.
 

"No other country in the world has given the oil companies such favourable terms."
– Mike Cunningham, former Statoil director

Ireland has 100s of billions worth of gas & oil

Equal to €100,000 for every person in Ireland... but oil multinationals will get it all The global financial crisis has hit Ireland particularly hard. Most of us are feeling the squeeze... If only Ireland had valuable natural resources. Offshore gas, like Norway. Or oil, like Saudi Arabia. Cutbacks, pay freezes and the pension levy would be things of the past. We could weather the economic storm; build more schools and hospitals; introduce free health- care and education; and our gas and ESB bills would be slashed.

In fact, Ireland does have some of the biggest reserves of gas and oil in €540 billion (€540,000,000,000) Europe. According to the Government, worth of gas and oil lies under Irish around €100,000 for every person in Ireland. waters off our west coast.* That’s It’s enough to write off our national debt more than 10 times over.

Unfortunately, though, Ireland will not benefit from this wealth. Why not?

THE GREAT GAS GIVEAWAY

For reasons still unknown, in 1987 and 1992, ministers Ray Burke and Bertie Ahern made bizarre changes to the law governing Irish gas and oil exploration. They reduced the state’s share in these resources from 50% to zero %, abolished royalties and slashed the tax rates. As it now stands:
• The gas and oil is 100% owned by the oil companies who find it and bring it ashore.
• The state receives no royalties.
• The oil companies will pay only 25% corporation tax. (In Norway it’s up to 78%) ...
• But 100% of costs can be written off against tax. Remarkably, this includes costs incurred outside Ireland – all the company’s accountants have to do is link these costs to the project in question. They can also write off the costs of all unsuccessful (i.e. non-gas-producing) wells.

Take the Corrib Gas field. The government says it contains around €10 billion worth of gas. Shell can sell this gas to Irish consumers, via Bord Gais, at full international market price. (Or it can sell it abroad if it wishes.) Either way, the proceeds will go to the shareholders of Shell, Statoil and Marathon (and will pay for public services in Norway, as Statoil is majority-owned by Norway’s government). Bear this in mind the next time you hear a politician mention Ireland’s "national interest" to explain why an experimental inland gas refinery and dangerous high-pressure pipeline is being forced on a small rural community in Rossport.

WHY THE URGENCY?

New exploration licences are being issued to oil multinationals all the time. Over the next couple of years, the government will give away hundreds of billions of euro worth of Ireland’s gas and oil... ... unless we stop them. We must take control of our resources. Act now!

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Find out more, read the articles on this website, create an account so we can keep you informed of latest developments and you can discuss these.

• Sign this online petition:

www.petitiononline.com/s2s/

• Lobby your politicians. Ask them are they going to protect your gas.

• Write letters to local and national papers.

• Make posters and put them up locally.

• Go to Erris and see for yourself what’s going on around Shell’s refinery & pipeline.

Contact Dublin Shell to Sea: dublins2s AT gmail.com Tel: 087 8141580