In the film Local Hero, a US multinational tries to buy up a Scottish coastal community for exploration purposes. It even puts in for the church. Thankfully, Knox Oil and Gas has to contend with a wily solicitor, Gordon Urquhart. Pity there is no Urquhart looking after Irish offshore interests.
That's the view of Irish offshore workers attached to SIPTU, who have voiced concern about the deal done over exploration rights off this coastline. This week the Sedco 711 drilling rig is due to begin work some 45 miles off Mayo on a £14 million programme for Enterprise Oil. The British firm is said to be on the brink of a major gas find. If so, it will be of little or no benefit to this economy, according to Padraig Campbell.
Mr Campbell, who lives in Barna, Co Galway, has worked on rigs all over the world. He pursues a well-paid but highly insecure occupation at some personal cost. He has had two toes reattached, has survived an explosion and has torn ligaments. He has put friends into body-bags and helped fly them home.
Mr Campbell is one of some 900 Irish-based offshore workers trained in Cork, and bearing the skill and experience sought by the exploration companies. Since 1969, when offshore drilling began here, there has been a unionised Irish-based labour element on all rigs, drill ships, supply boats and gas production platforms.
However, an agreement forged with the then ITGWU, and inherited by SIPTU, has now been breached by Enterprise Ireland, and more companies will follow, he claims.
The issue was brought to a head last week, when Enterprise Ireland confirmed it felt Irish staff lacked the necessary competence. "We are not running a summer camp," its general manager, Mr John McGoldrick, told one newspaper, with reference to the skills factor. He also said that SIPTU rates were too high. SIPTU in turn called on the Government to revoke the company's licence.
The union disputes his assertions and believes it to be a "smokescreen" in reaction to SIPTU's concern about safety. Since the Piper Alpha oil rig explosion off Aberdeen in 1988, when 167 people lost their lives, safety has improved immeasurably in the industry, according to Mr Campbell.
However, it has been at a cost, and agency-supplied, non-unionised labour on North Sea rigs has been perceived as an attempt to dodge responsibilities. The running joke that flesh and paint are the "cheapest things on a rig" bears a hard and very realistic edge.
"If a chain breaks, the rig is shut down. If someone is injured, they are flown off because it is cheaper to pay for the accident than to stop the operation," he and his colleague, Joe O'Toole, who is chairman of SIPTU's national offshore committee, explain.
"The point is that we do have the necessary expertise here. In fact, Ireland should be laying the foundation for its own Aberdeen, instead of which all the benefits from the finds anticipated off this coast in the next few years will go elsewhere."
Fianna Fail is on record as saying as much when in opposition, although it was a Fianna Fail-Progressive Democrats coalition which was responsible for the original deal, offering the lowest corporation tax and royalty rates to exploration companies in the world.
The approach adopted by Norway, now known in the industry as "Norwegianisation", needs to be followed here, according to Mr Campbell and Mr O'Toole, who stress that they are not "looney lefties", but people concerned with the future of their colleagues and the State's attitude to yet another marine resource.
"From the very time gas was hit off its coast, Norway ensured there was a doubling up of Norwegian staff on all rigs and platforms. It set up Statoil to benefit the economy. It stipulated that the multinationals contribute to a savings fund. It looks a century ahead. And do we try to follow that example, and ensure that the goods are shared about? No, we adopt a craven attitude and sign our rights away."
A spokesman for the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods, said it had no direct role in labour, as this was a matter between the unions and operators. EU legislation on free labour movement precluded the insertion of special employment conditions in licences, the spokesman said.
There were Irish-based workers in employment offshore, and the Minister always tried to "encourage" the companies in this regard, the spokesman said, emphasising that the exploration sector currently contributes £40 million annually in goods and services to this economy.
Mr Campbell says there is mounting anger among skilled workers in Galway, Limerick, Cork and Dublin. "On the beach is an expression we use for not being fixed up on a job," he says. Without some Government intervention, many will continue to walk the dunes and seek other work ashore.
