Is Shell's Corrib Gas project good for the local community? YES - Pádraig Cosgrovesays the project is bringing back life to Erris villages long drained of people and jobs. NO - Maura Harringtonsays local benefits are exaggerated and far outweighed by the costs to the environment and democracy
YES - Pádraig Cosgrove:
Last Sunday, the cooling tower of the ESB's redundant Bellacorick power station was demolished in spectacular fashion. Just as the most famous landmark in Erris was tumbling to the ground, less than 15km (9.5) away another major energy project is rising out of the bog at Bellanaboy. Here in Erris, the west at last is truly awake. For the past 160 years, this region has been a net exporter of labour to practically every country in the world. Now a small part of the Celtic Tiger construction boom has come to this northwesterly tip of Ireland.
Erris is experiencing its first major inward investment since electricity was brought to north Mayo in the 1950s. The memory of rural electrification for me is very faint and distant, but I do remember that at the time a lot of the old people were worried that it was not safe and would cause house fires. There were even some altercations with gardaí. Perhaps some things never change! When the linemen arrived, and stayed in the area, people saw the economic boost and the jobs it created.
Many people reading this are under the misconception that everyone in north Mayo is against the Corrib gas project and that, within the local community, it has no support. Nothing could be further from the truth. In my estimation, well over 350 families in the Erris region are directly benefiting through a weekly wage from the construction of the gas terminal in Bellanaboy.
Combined with this, the Corrib gas promoters have also invested money in the community by sponsoring a large number of community events for between €2,000 and €10,000 over the years. This year, 10 students from the four local secondary schools receive bursaries of €4,000 each every year for the duration of their degrees, and 10 more will join them up to 2009, when the scheme will be reviewed. Last month, Belmullet GAA club received €150,000 for development of its grounds. An advisory panel has been established which will assist with the establishment of the Corrib Gas Community Investment fund. This level of corporate social investment is unheard of around here, and will probably never be seen again.
At present, some 450 people are employed directly on the building of the gas terminal. That number is expected to reach over 700 early in 2008. The gas project currently brings in some €2 million per week to the local economy. The 100 permanent jobs that will be created by Corrib Gas in Erris will have the same impact in our community as Google is creating in Dublin. High-net-value jobs have a ripple effect and not only does it bring in more money to the local economy but it also introduces and keeps families here. It will help us keep our student numbers up in the local primary schools and thereby hold onto valuable teachers and keep our economy alive.
I believe that while our hotels and pubs have seen increased business from the economic activity in the area, there has been a cost. The constant pictures and media coverage of protests and the continued exaggeration of local involvement in these protests send out a negative image of the region and have damaged a fledgling tourist destination in an area with many great natural amenities.
Every day, a long string of cars and vans with MO registration plates hum along the road outside my house on their way to and from work at the Bellanaboy gas terminal site. I am no longer a resident of an isolated community, whose workers were obliged to travel away from their homes on a Sunday night and be away all week at work in Galway and Dublin. Now, our young people have jobs locally and many people are returning from abroad in the hope of getting work. After 160 years, private enterprise has seen fit to make an investment in the area, and we should be seen to welcome that investment in the hope that other companies in other industries will look to move here.
No town or region in Ireland would refuse this and the people of Erris are no different. Given last May's election results, and that recent protests have relied on bussed-in students from Galway, Cork, Dublin and Belfast, topped with a large sprinkling of English eco-warriors, the argument over community consent is well and truly over.
While I acknowledge that a group is against the gas project in any form, whether at sea or on land, the majority of local people are voting with their feet. Having work on your doorstep is a given in Dublin; here in Erris it is a miracle. We will pray the miracle continues for the 15 to 20 years that Corrib gas is flowing ashore.
Pádraig Cosgrove lives in Bangor Erris, near the proposed gas terminal, and is chairman of the Pro Gas Mayo Group
NO - Maura Harrington:Rossport, in the noble barony of Erris, is a global village. Its current vicissitudes mirror the dilemmas facing the planet at the beginning of the 21st century: peak oil and what Al Gore calls "reclaiming the integrity of democracy". Both of these have played out in Erris on a daily basis in a community-led campaign, now in its eight year. The response to what was originally considered a fait accompli - building a gas refinery in a bog before the locals got their heads around complicated stuff - has been turned into a display of local commitment and competence which exposes how thin is the veneer of citizen protection in Ireland today.
It is standard Big Oil spin to talk in terms of "local benefit", when the bottom line for all such corporations - in this instance Royal Dutch Shell - is the maximisation of shareholder profit. Shell makes a conservative €2 million profit per hour, 24/7. To talk therefore of "benefits" of €1 million here, or €20 million there, is insulting when it is looked at in terms of one or 10 hours of Shell profit in any one year.
The current Shell proposal that landowners along the as-yet undefined raw gas pipeline route be paid €300,000 over 15 years may seem an acceptable sum to many readers and may, indeed, confirm the view of some that this is simply a case of "farmers holding out for more money".
Both views miss the point, because in Rossport, Dooncarton/Glengad and Pullathomas (the scene of major landslides in 2003) - in fact all the villages in the parish of Kilcommon - there exists an intelligently informed resolve that the project as proposed is unacceptable. This resolve is attested by over 80 per cent of parish inhabitants willingly signing a petition to that effect.
Discussion on "benefits" in relation to a proposed project such as Corrib often ignores the intangible assets - clean air, clean water, clean soil - upon which no economic value is set, obviating the possibility of a proper cost/benefit analysis.
Erris, the same size as Co Louth, has one source for its regional water supply. The Ballinaboy River provides 27 per cent of the water catchment of Carrowmore Lake, a shallow, spring-fed lake which is one of only six in the country. Scotland, a country with a long history of oil/gas development, precludes the building of refineries within the catchment of any regional water supply.
Air quality in Erris is pristine; small farms in Erris practised sustainability before it became a buzzword. Broadhaven Bay is home to the widest variety of cetaceans recorded in Irish waters, together with, at last count, 58 species of fish.
Sruwaddacon is a place of divine beauty. There are cliffs higher than Moher, beaches and nature trails to equal the best. In other words, Erris is a natural resource in its own right - ironically, through decades of State neglect, it is now ideally poised to answer the deep-felt need of so many who seek rest and refuge from an often soul-numbing existence in places "developed" past the point of human ease.
Shell has an execrable record of dealing with its fence-line communities. The Niger Delta communities have been ecologically despoiled by Shell's 50-year presence in their midst. In Erris, we feel a particular empathy with the Ogoni - once small farmers and fishermen as many in Erris are - now denizens of a destroyed land. They and communities in Durban, Curacao, the Philippines, Louisiana - all speaking from bitter experience - tell those who are willing to listen of the difference between Shell rhetoric and Shell reality.
In Erris, there is support for the proposed project from the usual quarters, the Chamber of Commerce, the golf club, local party politicians and anybody who is currently making a few bob. The myth of 300 local employees is just that. The figure can only be arrived at by adding those who are already employed by, for example, local quarries delivering product onsite and others who deliver or serve onsite. Many, if not most, of the Erris-based security staff work a three-day week and sign on for the other three days. The much-heralded short-term construction figure of 700 would include a majority of specialised crews from outside the area. In Rossport in 2005, the safety notices were in Italian, not Irish.
The proposed Corrib project will benefit communities countrywide when Shell folds its tent and goes quietly into the good night. The Rossport Five and the Shell to Sea campaign have done the State some service. The communities of Erris have established the principle of community consent, which will not be imposed upon for profit or subverted for a pittance.
Maura Harrington lives and teaches in Erris and has campaigned against the Shell project since 2000
Online: join the debate @ www.ireland.com/head2head 2 HEAD
Last Week: Should Fianna Fáil organise in Northern Ireland?
A selection of your comments
Of course FF should organise and contest elections in the occupied counties. So should FG and the Greens and even Labour (if it's still around). But recognise they are following the lead of the only party with a real plan to unify Ireland - Sinn Féin. Come on in, FF, the water is fine.
Jerry F, United States
Has anyone thought for one minute what the unionists would think of this? What if the DUP decided they wanted to organise in the South with a view to bringing all of Ireland back under the union! Fianna Fáil setting up in the North is crazy, it will splinter the nationalist community vote and alienate unionists. There isn't going to be a united Ireland, get over it.
James T, United Kingdom
Of course, Fianna Fáil should organise in Northern Ireland. The British Conservative party organises there with its unionist and UK mentality, so FF can organise with a more nationalist and all-island stance. The British and Irish Labour Parties don't contest elections there because the SDLP is their sister party and performs the function of promoting progressive social democracy in the six counties. I have no problem with that.
Conor, Ireland
This is the most important decision facing constitutional nationalism in Ireland. The SDLP is a party of high integrity and honesty - the architects and guardians of the Good Friday agreement, the party that showed real leadership to the divided people of this island. The SDLP has been a huge success and has achieved the goals it set out in phase one of its project. Its members are now at a crossroads and must take a critical step - but only if FF embraces the principles that the SDLP holds dear.
Phase one of the project has been achieved - now for phase two. A merger of the two will only occur if FF embraces not only the elements of SDLP policy on a settlement in the North which FF agreed wholeheartedly with, but also key areas of SDLP policy on social justice with sustainable social policies, equality, respecting the need for those who are British and native to this island to be central to the development of the new Ireland, an economic development vision and the unification of the people of this island through these core planks of SDLP policy.
Sinn Féin's vision of how to unite the people of this island is straight from cloud-cookooland. If a merger of FF and SDLP gives real leadership to constitutional nationalism in the North and provides unionism with real partners in creating a new Ireland, I am all for it. But FF will have to pass the acid test on the core planks of SDLP policy.
Mick S, Ireland
There is no chance Fianna Fáil can be more republican than Sinn Féin. The reasons that people vote for FF - their experience of government, local figures, management of the economy - mean nothing in Northern Ireland. People overlook the various corruption scandals by saying at least they brought prosperity. The only votes they could get would be from people who vote for the SDLP. The SDLP's vote will end up being split, making Sinn Féin's position stronger. Another problem is where would they get the candidates? They would alienate Protestants who vote tactically to keep Sinn Féin out.
Robert, Ireland
It is laughable to believe that Fianna Fáil can deliver anything to NI. This is the party of corruption and deceit which has left the ROI in its present mess. Take health, education, crime and the total disregard of planning laws. Yes, they have won three general elections but they have wasted a once-in-a-lifetime economic boom. What have we to show for our riches?
Kevin Gallagher, Ireland