Madam, – The Front Line organisation, which has issued a report into the Corrib Gas project and related matters (Home News, April 27th), has no statutory or supervisory role and its findings have no compulsion.
Some of our group met the Front Line investigator in Co Mayo in October 2008. We gave examples of intimidation and evidence of damage to quarry owners’ and business properties who gave their services to Shell, but such matters do not appear to be taken into consideration, as from a cursory reading of the report I find the only reference to damage is to a Shell fence on the night of an alleged assault on Willie Corduff.
The report is unduly critical of the Garda Síochána, who merely enforce the law of the land. Comments from judges at recent court sittings about thuggery, bullies and vigilante activity on behalf of Shell to Sea, speak for themselves.
The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) was never interfered with in investigating complaints. Only one complaint of the many made appeared in the opinion of the GSOC to have had any substance – surely a startling statistic.
The call for a rights observer to be present if the onshore Shell Gas pipeline is upheld may be a good one as neither the Garda Síochána nor other statutory authorities have anything to fear. The only people who have need to fear are protesters who do not engage in peaceful protest.
Other matters which should have been dealt with more adequately are: 1. Despite so-called favourable tax terms only two companies sought to apply for a licence here at the outset given the harsh conditions, and Shell will pay 26 per cent corporation tax on profits while other companies pay 12 per cent. 2. There are still about 700 people working on the project (1,100 at peak) and the jobs and benefits that will accrue when it is finished are very valuable in an area long starved of investment.
Among those who met the investigator at our meeting were Padraig Cosgrove, our chairman, who lives overlooking the project and myself, the secretary of Pro Gas Mayo. In the Front Line report we are described as “businessmen”. In fact we are both retired with no vested interests only the good of the area, and we were never in business of any kind. Such a description gives the impression of a special interest where none exists. – Yours, etc,