100 Billion for Exxon - Zero for the Irish

national | environment | news report Friday February 17, 2006 12:53 by Miriam Cotton

Having attended three talks given by Micheal O’ Seghin of the Rossport 5, it has been remarkable that he has scarcely repeated himself in presenting the facts about what is happening in Mayo – and throughout Ireland – where the Shell to Sea campaign is concerned. Despite having recently posted a report from his discussion with Eamonn Dunphy at Trinity College in Dublin last week, it was clear at his most recent talk that it warranted a further report - presented here in Micheal's own words. The venue was O' Donovan’s Hotel, Clonakilty, 15 February 2006.

After introductions and welcome Micheal took the floor:

MOS:

"It’s easy to say thanks at times like this but the reality is that the response of people has forged something completely new. We happened to be the catalyst for it. The people who looked, saw and responded made this movement.

We are not being sophisticated – there is nothing sophisticated in what we do – we came under attack by Shell and the government. Our difficulty is not with Shell entirely: just as it is in the nature of a dog to bark and bite, it is in the nature of Shell to want to make money. I have no problem with business in a business orientated society. My problem is with the ethical basis for the conduct of that business.

It is the job of government, however, to provide the best possible conditions for the citizens – not to bully them or to pass laws that would enable any one person to become ludicrously rich at the expense of other citizens. Providence Oil was almost 100% owned by Tony O Reilly which encompasses the Dunquin field in the Porcupine bank - by the way, why do these companies use our place names for these sites – and which is part of the necklace of pearls around our coast and up to the Shetlands.

This week Exxon (who have the worst environmental record of all oil companies) has taken 80% of the Dunquin field. TOR is down to 15% and the others to 4%. Exxon will now pay all further exploration costs and outstanding bills. From this investment they stand to make around 100 billion euro. Poor old Tony – he’s only going to get about 16 billion – isn’t that a disgrace?

We as citizens will get nothing.

The Finance Act of 1992 which was put together by Bertie Ahern and Bobby Molloy was basically a consolidation of prior decisions. It meant that these oil companies would never be required to pay tax.
Of the licenses issued immediately on the 1st January the day the act came into force 3 of the 4 were for substantial finds. Not even Moses, when he tapped the rock and water came forth, could have bettered that for good luck. All of the prize pieces around our coast are now gone.

In the oil and gas caper, all of the licences issued have been Irish solutions to an Irish perceived problem. ‘Frontier’ licences don’t exist anywhere else. It is claimed that the idea was to cater for waters so difficult it would be practically impossible to explore in them but the technology to explore our resources had already long since defeated any difficulties of that sort.

Dempsey (Noel) has recently given licenses to the FINERVA company for Sligo, Leitrim and Cavan and over the border in Fermanagh – and another at sea on the Porcupine bank. Those licences don’t require them to be touched for 15 years – they pay just 20K for them without doing anything. Then, when the 15 years is up, they only have to say they are thinking of exploring them in order to have another 5 years delay. After that they must drill or return the licence. In the meantime, every decision about the development of hydrocarbons can be subordinated to the needs of the company in question. We have no say in it at all. And while all of this wealth is lying around unused, we are struggling to pay for hospital facilities and schools and other infrastructural shortfalls.

I knew a man who worked for Ray Burke as a civil servant. All his career he had found the various ministers, whatever personal foibles they might have had, to be genuinely committed to furthering the interests of the citizens of this country. That all changed in 1985. This man retired at 59 in 1989 because he could not take the behaviour of the Minister in the way that he was giving away our natural resources. Our constitution permits the MANAGEMENT of the country’s resources to be farmed out – but not to actually be given away entirely. Anyway, the person who replaced my friend at the ministry was a young man, advertised widely as a high flyer at the time. In reality it was just that his inexperience and lack of knowledge were his best qualifications for the job and for all that was planned for our natural resources at that time. He had no knowledge of the industry and no idea what he was dealing with or how to cope with what was going on. He subsequently ended up in great difficulties with various tribunals and is now a very broken man because of his experiences."

Asked how he found his time in gaol MOS replied:

"I can honestly say that in comparison to the superlative executives in Shell and the incredible human beings who are our civil servants, the company in gaol was much more conducive to a pleasant nights sleep."

Continues:

There are two Irelands: the one that existed on the 29th Of June and the Ireland that came alive on the 1st July 2005. The people just stood up and said no. I believed there would maybe be a bit of a row. People are so busy keeping up with the high standard of living we now have. People are very pushed – we couldn’t see them taking an interest. And then when we were at our lowest ebb some young people came to us (gestures at Tracy Ryan of the Solidarity Camp) – it was a tremendous boost over the summer. We had a taste of what the reaction might be. And then we went into prison. We had a job convincing Shell and the government that we couldn’t be bought out.

The identity of a place depends on the usage of the land – even though its uses may change. Perhaps more important than that though is the fact that there isn’t anything there that is worth more than what we already have. I have put it recently that the conflict for us now, since becoming aware of the natural resources, is that it should not be our business to have struggle to get the government to do its job properly. When the regulations of 1992 and SI 110 (handing responsibility from energy Minister to the Department of the Marine) – not one TD voted against it. Exemptions have been given to the oil industry in a way that should never have happened. The Bolivians took back the gas – they re-nationalised – and they were getting a better deal before that than we are now.

We now have the terrifying spectre of compulsory acquisition for the first time ever being given to a commercial interest. The basic principle of these orders is that the state would have a right to buy land in the interest of the common good. The rule was that the benefits must be at least as much as the burden being put on the land. Shell just laughed at that when we put it to them.

Now, instead of this community-minded power intended to prevent unreasonable monopoly of land usage, we have a situation where Walmart could take over a fair green in a county town on the same basis as Shell have done in Mayo. This is a terrible development for Ireland – the government have now put a toe in the cold water of commercial compulsory acquisition powers, in a nice out of the way area where nobody was supposed to notice - but it could happen anywhere.

But we have all of us shown the power of people’s anger. We didn’t really realise the strength of feeling until the day we were released. We knew the facts – about the marches and so on. The moment that crystalised it for me was when, on walking out of prison, a man approached me with his two sons and asked if he could take a photograph of us?) with the children so they would have proof of having met us in future.

The Rossport 5 are now a brand name. Where are we going from here? Suppose they send riot police this summer to force their way onto the farms and suppose we walk away – how are you going to feel? You have us over a barrel! We had no choice in protecting our families from potential danger. And because of that we became a symbol of people saying ‘things don’t have to be like this’. Conversely ye are also in it for the long haul too! The real heroism lies with those who had the choice – no one else was forced to kick up a row, they wouldn’t be letting anyone down but they did it anyway all over the country.

We know the project is stupid where the Irish people are concerned. The ugliest part is that even at that it can be done safely and profitably – as safely as it was done in Kinsale. Bertie Ahern has accused us of adopting an ‘our way or no way’ attitude. What we have actually said is that there is ONE way you will not do it – you will not destroy our place – do it any other way you like. We are now building consciousness among other people which is something which we hope will bring forward the day when the Dail will reclaim our resources.

Finally, to put it simply, what lies ahead is that basically, Shell won’t change. But we won’t allow them in – we will have help from all over the country. Then the state can send in troops or back off. There isn’t any other thing in it."