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August 2012

Making no apologies for Corrib ‘debacle’

By: 
Liamy McNally - Mayo News

Last week my alternate column colleague, Fr Kevin Hegarty, was critical of my article on the Corrib gas project.  He singled out the use of the word ‘debacle’ in the headline.  I would like to bring to his notice that the headline ‘Corrib Debacle Continues’ was inserted at the sub-editing stage.  My headline was ‘Cavalier Corrib Marches On.’  I might add that the use of the word ‘debacle’ in the headline is something I wholly agree with.  I used the word in the body of the article to describe the ‘recent tunnelling convoy debacle.’  I make no apology for its use.

I made two phone calls to Shell offices in Mayo and Dublin the previous week for a comment on the cross-country convoy.  I was not afforded the good manners of a reply to either call.  Fr Kevin, acting I presume as an apologist for Shell in his column, is, perhaps, their response, I do not know. 

Fr Kevin described how good Shell is for the county and listed various support programmes that it has instituted for north Mayo.  The trans-national company has done all of that but only after it and statutory bodies were challenged every step of the way by local people who questioned their motives in the area. He admitted that he is a member of Shell’s Third Level Scholarship Programme.  How many people from the parish most affected by Shell’s work are on any of these committees?  How many of the people whose lives have been and are being continuously disrupted by Shell and their private security firm are benefiting from these schemes? 

Posted Date: 
21 August 2012
Link: 

http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1598...

Corrib jobs announced as Nigerian environmentalist speaks in Glenamoy

By: 
Áine Ryan - Mayo News

AS Shell announces ten long-term jobs for the controversial Corrib gas project, an environmentalist has warned that government ministers ‘should not be allowed to sacrifice the environment on the altar of corporate greed’.
The ten trainee Production Operations and Maintenance Technicians will ultimately form part of the Corrib team running the refinery at Bellanaboy when the project is completed.

Posted Date: 
21 August 2012
Link: 

http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1596...

Gas fracking should not be allowed anywhere, says top environmentalist

By: 
Frank McDonald - Irish Times

THE GOVERNMENT would “become the shoeshine boy of the [shale gas] industry” if it allowed fracking to take place anywhere in Ireland, according to the Nigerian human rights activist who heads Friends of the Earth International.

Nnimmo Bassey said Ministers “should not be allowed to sacrifice the environment on the altar of corporate greed” – as they had done for decades in his own country, where “the entire nation was Shell’s concession”.

Posted Date: 
20 August 2012
Link: 

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0820/1224322499128.html

THE GAKK Section 24

By: 
thegakkmmx - YouTube

Posted Date: 
20 August 2012
Link: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-232chYs5M&feature=youtu.be

Mayo to levy power and waste projects

By: 
FRANK McDONALD, Environment Editor, The Irish Times

MAYO COUNTY Council is planning to impose “community benefit” levies on wind farms, power stations, quarries, gas pipelines, telecom masts and waste disposal facilities – but the move would not apply to the Corrib gas project.

The council, which has extended the deadline for public consultation on its proposals until September 28th, is planning to set the levies at exactly the same level – €2,500 per megawatt – for wind turbines and “industrial installations for carrying gas”.

Posted Date: 
20 August 2012
Link: 

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0820/1224322499794.html

Shareholder in Corrib project, Vermilion, has €10m loss at Irish arm

By: 
By John Mulligan Thursday August 16 2012 Independent.ie

 

THE Irish arm of Canadian resources firm Vermilion Energy, which is a shareholder in the Corrib gas project, recorded a €10.5m loss last year. That compared with a €27.1m profit a year earlier.

The large disparity between the two figures -- revealed in the firm's latest filed accounts -- is due to the reversal in 2010 of a previously recorded €38.7m impairment, which inflated its profits that year. Without it, it had posted an €11.6m loss.

Posted Date: 
18 August 2012
Link: 

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/shareholder-in-corrib-project-v...

Corrib campaigners under scrutiny, Shell to Sea claims

By: 
LORNA SIGGINS, Western Correspondent The Irish Times 17th Aug 2012

 

SHELL TO Sea says it has received “further evidence” of monitoring of campaigners opposed to the Corrib gas project by a private security company.

The group has released scans of pages from two notebooks, which it says comprises notes taken by security staff employed by Integrated-Risk Management Services (I-RMS). I-RMS is employed by Shell EP Ireland and Corrib gas developers on the project.

The notebooks with records dated between April and June 2010 included names of campaigners, and a reference to a “covert camera”.

Posted Date: 
17 August 2012
Link: 

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0817/1224322324206.html

News release: New evidence of Shell's covert surveillance emerges

News Release - Issued by Shell to Sea - Thursday, 16th August, 2012

NEW EVIDENCE OF SHELL’S COVERT SURVEILLANCE EMERGES

-- Scans of two IRMS notebooks sent to Shell to Sea --

This week Shell to Sea received further evidence of the surveillance operation that has been mounted by private security firm IRMS against campaigners opposed to the Corrib Gas project. The evidence consists of scans of pages from two IRMS notebooks that contain notes taken by IRMS personnel between April and June 2010. These scans of the notebooks can be viewed here: http://www.shelltosea.com/content/irms-notebooks-2010

Among the notes made was one which stated "VU Covert Camera Not in Box I-RMS 10" and also how the security went on the 5th June 2010 (while a gathering was taking place at Rossport Solidarity Camp) to “gather intel” and to take “Pics and names if possible”. The names of three campaigners are noted in one of the books.

IRMS Notebooks 2010 - Detailing covert surveillance operation

[Shell to Sea] Below are the scans images of pages from two IRMS notebooks that contain notes taken by IRMS personnel between April and June 2010 of their monitoring activites in the area.

*********************************************

Notebook 1

Posted Date: 
16 August 2012

IRMS Situtation Report from 29th June 2012

[Shell to Sea]  Below is the IRMS report from the Aughoose compound which details the 24 hour surveillance that was carried out on the 29th June 2012.  An Irish Times article on the report can be viewed here.

Posted Date: 
16 August 2012