Plans to develop gas and oil fields only serve corporate interests
The Centre for Public Inquiry’s report on this scheme (November 2005) includes expert technical assessment of the safety risks. The risks are real and are systematically understated by Shell and its supporters in officialdom. It is a case of ‘space shuttle syndrome’. This ‘has come to mean a complex organisation rushing to launch at all costs, failing to fix or address fundamentally flawed initial approaches, while utilising poor risk management to cloak their misguided confidence everything will work’.
Ms O’Malley declares the Corrib project ‘is in the national interest’. The ‘national interest’ in this project is virtually non-existent. There are no royalties on gas and oil, corporations enjoy a 100% tax write-off against capital expenditure over the last 25 years, and there is no State participation in the oil and gas industry. These terms were conceded in 1987 by the then Energy Minister, Ray Burke. In 1992, Bertie Ahern, as finance minister, made further concessions.
