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Quotes

Con Coughlan

"Shell made €18.2bn profit in the first 9 months of 2011, and yet still got a €12.7m tax credit from the Irish exchequer last year. Enda Kenny talks about making tough choices, which he seems to think means going after pensioners and the other vulnerable people of our society.  Yet he and his Government are continuing the policy of giving away our valuable oil and gas resources to these outrageously rich companies, with no benefit to the country"

— Con Coughlan of the Rossport Solidarity Camp

Maura Harrington

“The judicial lesson from a female judge seems to be that you can joke about rape and still have your good ‘name’ valued at €33,000”.

— Maura Harrington - commenting on the awarding of €33,000 to ex-Sgt James Gill for damage to his 'good name'

Martin Ferris

Also, at that time there was a strike in the Porcupine Basin which was capped and left there... We do not know what was there. .... I will not sit here and be a hypocrite. I do not trust the operators. From the evidence that I have seen, both nationally and internationally, I do not think anybody could trust them. What we need is transparency and honesty. What we need are benefits to the Irish people and for the Exchequer from the exploration of Irish resources.

— Martin Ferris,TD - speaking at the Dáil Committee into Offshore Exploration Licences

Gordon Deegan - Irish Times

The company [Shell Ireland] has received €100 million in tax credits since the project commenced

— Gordon Deegan - Irish Times: on what Shell (which made €18.2bn profit in the first 9 months of 2011) has recieved from Ireland (which has a €20.4bn deficit)

Local resident

Settling on the steps is what you're used to doing. Every organisation in this country that's what they are at. And that's what has left our youth going out to Austrailia and New Zealand and everywhere else with the last 12 months.

We'll have to fight for another day, the whole community. Ye might settle for money with them, but we are not going to.”

— Local resident speaking to An Taisce board member Attracta Uí Bhroin

Michael D Higgins

"Agencies of the State got involved on the side of the developer, rather than on the side of the community. Given that alternative models were available in other countries, it was scandalous that we proceeded as we did. It reveals the mindset of certain people. I am reminded of the woman who was sent to jail in New York, who said that taxes are for small people. In this case, it seems that planning is not for big people…….
I refer again to the notion that some projects are too big for public accountability and transparency in planning. I am not making accusations that I cannot support."

— Michael D Higgins - President-elect of Ireland speaking in 2010 on Corrib

Terence Conway

“If the state isn't going to carry out its moral duty to protect the people of Erris, then it falls on the ordinary people of Ireland to stand up for themselves. It's all very well being vindicated but we're still left fighting this monument to political corruption. This is just the latest deal in the whole Corrib project done behind closed doors that ends up betraying a local community which has been fighting this unwanted development for over ten years.”

— Terence Conway reacting to the withdrawal of An Taisce's legal challenge into Corrib

Stein Bredal

“Energy prices are only going up, so why is your Minister in such a hurry, when he should be guaranteeing jobs and a greater return to the Irish taxpayer if there is a find?  Norway had four brave politicians who brokered a deal with the multinationals and ensured Norway would develop expertise through setting up Statoil.”

— Stein Bredal - a former board member of the Norwegian oil and gas company, Statoil

Joe Higgins

 "Even the government itself has figures that perhaps there is 10 billion barrels of oil equilvalent off our coast. There is no point, what so ever, in rushing to give control of this to private companies."

— Joe Higgins TD - responding to Pat Rabbitte giving away oil & gas exploration permits for over 1/4 million square kilometres off our coast

Valerie Finan

"Maybe our constitution needs to be rewritten to more accurately reflect the reality of modern Ireland. Maybe it should now say “The State is bound to protect the profits and self proclaimed economic entitlements of every industry big enough to hold sway over government policy”."

 

— Valerie Finan, of the Save Our Cancer Services-NW campaign