35,000 ‘Bord Gáis’ Natural Resource Leaflets Distributed

dublin | anti-capitalism | news report

Friday March 30, 2007 03:55

by Cormac Ryan PRO éirígí

éirígí Campaign Update

As part of its ongoing campaign for the nationalisation of Ireland’s natural resources éirígí have produced 50,000 information leaflets. To date over 35,000 leaflets have been distributed to homes across Dublin. The leaflet which features a mock Bord Gáis bill seeks to highlight a number of issues including:

The accumulative impact of successive Bord Gáis price hikes since April 2003. Domestic prices are currently 85% higher than they were less than four years ago (prices actually peaked during the winter of 2006 at a level 103% above April 2003 levels).

The potentially massive size of Irish oil and gas reserves. The Corrib field alone is sufficiently large to meet the majority of Irish needs for a least a decade. The Dunquin reserve is currently estimated at a size which would place it in the top twenty oil and gas fields in the world.

The corrupt nature of the legislation enacted by Ray Burke in his time as Minister for Energy, legislation that still governs oil and gas exploration in the twenty-six counties.

Fuel Poverty and The Real Cost of Rising Fuel Prices. Up to a million people in Ireland are living in households that experience occasional or consistent fuel poverty. The most extreme effect of fuel poverty being that of premature deaths from avoidable cold related illnesses. There are up to 3,000 of such deaths each year in Ireland. As fuel prices increase the portion of household income spent on energy also increases meaning that ever greater numbers of people find themselves suffering the effects of fuel poverty.

To view the éirígí ‘Bord Gáis’ leaflet click on the following link
http://www.eirigi.org/pdfs/campaigns/Bord_Gais_Bill.pdf

As part of its campaign calling for the natural resources of Ireland to be used for the benefits of the people of Ireland éirígí activists have taken part in non-violent direct actions including the mass occupation of the site of Shell’s proposed refinery in Ballinaboy, Co Mayo in January and Shell’s Headquarters in Ireland on Tuesday of this week.

éirígí have also held a series of pickets outside of Bertie Aherns constituency office in Dublin. The next picket is scheduled for this Saturday the 31st of March at 1pm. All welcome.

For more information on the campaign log onto www.eirigi.org