Energy resources belong to us all
As the national emergency (unsustainable debt) continues, some ministers are trying to get us out of a deep hole and are frustrated by the lack of revenue for their departments, yet they still sit at Cabinet, which presides over the reckless mishandling of our energy resources.
To halt the crippling interest rates on the country’s borrowings, royalties are applied to the exploration of Irish oil and gas, payment upon extraction, so that revenue will flow to the Exchequer.
Nor should we have to return to the international markets to purchase our own oil and gas. The nonsense development charges should be re-negotiated and deferred.
These issues must be addressed.
No government, no matter it’s majority, has the right to hand over a nation’s energy resources, and future security of energy needs, to private enterprise.
A decision of this magnitude should be decided by all-party, all-TD consensus, or referendum, or both, with additional input from leading industrialists and academics, who have the country’s interest at heart.
The potential value, to the nation, of our oil and gas resources, is multiple times that of our total debt.
The oil and gas companies should not be allowed to ‘walk away’ with a disproportionate share. Inexplicably, the current, ten-year lease agreements allows that to happen.
The Corrib Gas Field is estimated to have the potential of producing one trillion (1,000,000,000,000) cubic feet of gas (conservative estimate).
The excellent, and comprehensive, Liquid Assets Report, by the Dublin Shell to Sea Organisation, estimates that the benefit to the nation, under the present agreement, after all expenses have been paid to Shell, will be just 7% and those revenues will not be paid to the Exchequer for years.
If this madness continues, then nothing less than a ‘class action’ by the people, against the Department, the Cabinet, and the Government, should be taken by the citizens.
It is high time for the Cabinet to familiarise themselves with Article 45 of our Constitution, of which they are in breach:
“Section 3 (2°): The State shall endeavour to secure that private enterprise shall be so conducted as to ensure reasonable efficiency in the production and distribution of goods and as to protect the public against unjust exploitation.
Section 4 (1°): The State pledges itself to safeguard with especial care the economic interests of the weaker sections of the community, and, where necessary, to contribute to the support of the infirm, the widow, the orphan, and the aged.”
If this appalling agreement, which applies to all the exploration companies (25% return on net profit), remains in place, history will place this Government well and truly in the same category as its recklessly incompetent predecessors.
Ireland’s percentage take is the lowest of a long list of international agreements between other countries, and exploration companies, worldwide.
Ballinspittle
Co Cork
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