Five farmers remain indefinitely imprisoned for contempt of court after defying an Irish High Court ruling that they must comply with the Shell-led construction of a high-pressure gas pipeline across their land near Rossport, County Mayo.
The June ruling followed five years of legal haggling between the Anglo-Dutch multinational Shell and its partners, Mayo County Council, local residents and environmental groups. The pipeline will run 70km from the offshore Corrib field to a proposed onshore terminal at Broadhaven Bay, and 8km through the farmers’ land, past houses, a pub and a school, to a massive refinery at Bellanaboy. The refinery will have nine huge chimneys, from which the emissions of carbon dioxide and methane will be equivalent to the global warming potential of 27,000 cows. Environmental groups have also been warning about the potential effects of toxic emissions on Broadhaven Bay, an important breeding ground for various species of whale and dolphin, and Carrowmore Lake, the source of the regional water supply. Both areas are ‘protected’ under EU habitat directives, but in spite of this the 26-County government and High Court have effectively legalised the irreversible destruction of a large section of Ireland’s western coastline.
The Republic of Ireland currently offers the lowest tax rates on commercial expropriation of national oil and gas reserves in Europe. Its 25% tax compares to rates as high as 79% in other European countries. 100% tax write-offs allow costs to be deducted from the tax-bills of Shell and other pirates. Enterprise Oil first won the Corrib contract from the governing Fianna Fail party in 1996, before being swallowed up by the opportunistic Shell in 2002. Fianna Fail, which liberalised the tax laws in 1992, was rewarded for its selfless gift on the behalf of the Irish people. The Galway Races of 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 saw major fundraising events for the party – taken care of by none other than Enterprise Oil.
Not only does Fianna Fail care nothing for the environment, however it obviously has no interest in the safety and wellbeing of the citizens of County Mayo either. The entire onshore development is to be built on unstable peat bogs, and the pipeline has a half-mile burn radius. Last year a similar pipeline exploded in Belgium killing 15 people, and the same scenario saw 12 deaths in New Mexico in August 2000.
Pickets of Shell forecourts, rallies and marches in support of the Rossport Five sprang up across the 26 Counties after the High Court ruling, with some Shell workers even downing tools after consistent local action. The furore led the complicit Natural Resources Minister Noel Dempsey to commission a further safety review in July, and 3km of pipeline were dismantled as a result of ‘a serious breach of the consents given to Shell in relation to the pipeline’. In August, however, Dempsey showed his true colours and gave Shell his blessing to continue with the construction of the offshore section of the development.
Shell has since announced that it will delay continued construction until 2006, which will apparently ‘not materially affect the project’s completion schedule’. This is in complete contrast to their successful argument for an injunction against the Rossport farmers in May. Shell’s barrister argued that the company would lose ¤25,000 per day for each day’s delay after 1 June, and that stalling the project until 2006 would be at the cost of a ¤2,500,000 remobilisation fee. Whatever the costs, Shell and Fianna Fail both imagine that by letting off steam for a few months they will be able to quell dangerous levels of discontent that threaten to scrap not only the Corrib project but also the credibility of a corrupt government.
The Rossport Five have been told they will remain in prison until they have ‘purged their contempt’, but they have themselves pledged not to do so until Shell and Fianna Fail purge theirs. The solidarity movement is steadily gaining momentum, and herein lies the dilemma for its opposite number in government. How can the piracy of Ireland’s gas go ahead without more unpopular arrests and imprisonment?
Send letters of support to the
Rossport Five: Willie Corduff,
Philip McGrath, Brendan Philbin, Vincent McGrath and Michael O’Suighin, Cloverhill Prison, Clondalkin, Dublin 22, Ireland.
Willem van Wyklouw
FRFI 187 October / November 2005
