DAVID SMITH,
Sir, - The delay in bringing ashore natural gas from the Corrib field is an excellent opportunity to think again about the entire venture.
It is incomprehensible to me how this, one of the greatest scandals in the history of the State, has slid by without any serious media investigation or public outrage. At a time when the Norwegian oil tax is a thumping 78 per cent, the Irish Government is settling for a pathetic 12.5 per cent take on Corrib gas which, moreover, may be written off against expenditure going back 25 years. Presumably, this is the reason why one does not see beggars on the streets of Oslo, since the major problem the Norwegians face is how to stop too much money pumping into their economy and overheating it. This is one problem Ireland is not going to have to deal with.
To add insult to injury, last year the Government sold off the Irish National Petroleum Corporation at the very time when it might finally have begun to prove useful. Worse, it was sold in a deal which, on the face of it, was worth almost €160 million to the State, but in fact will end up costing the taxpayer millions because we have not only agreed to write off over €125 million in INPC debts, but also to underwrite any claims in respect of the Whiddy Island disaster.
Incredibly, most of this came to pass under Fianna Fáil/PD administrations, where one party claims to be the functioning embodiment of the nation and keeper of its grail, and the other claims to be the hard-nosed, economically trustworthy partner. It occurs to me that the keepers of the grail can't be trusted to keep time to a dance rhythm, and the stolid, trustworthy PDs, with their undergraduate free-market economics, couldn't be trusted to organise the proverbial activity in a brewery. - Yours, etc.,
DAVID SMITH, Harmonstown Road, Artane, Dublin 5.