Massive oil find in time for general election?

national | environment | other press

Thursday January 25, 2007 22:03

by Miiram Cotton

mcotton at mediabite dot org

What have FF been holding back?

In discussion with a member of the Rossport Five last autumn mention was made of the fact that he believed the government were planning to make a big, election-winning announcement about the discovery of oil off our shores in time to secure a resounding victory at the next election. A tiny item in today's Irish Daily Mirror might point to something in that direction too:

"The government is locked in talks this week which could result in the biggest oil rush the country has ever seen. Officials are holding meetings at the UN headquarters in New York to secure more offshore territory to drill in".

Ireland can currently explore for natural resources on the sea bed up to 320 kilometeres outside the coastline. But now the state has requested access to an extra 39,000 square km off the southwest coast - about half the size of the country. The UN will make a decision on this submission during its next session in March or April. Ireland was only the fourth country ever to make a submission to the UN following similar moves by Rissia, Brazil and Australia. Last May, Ireland also requested access to 80,000 square km on the Celtic Sea off the south coast."

The piece is on page 2, barely noticeable in the least viewed part of the layout. For such an extraordinarily signficant item of news, this seems a bit strange. Why so coy? Do Manchester United's training secrets seriously warrant front page coverage ahead of this?