| Thursday, 11 December 2008 | |
| DeFacto Liamy MacNally  IT IS comforting to note that the Chairman of the Government-backed Community Forum, Mr Joe Brosnan, is willing to meet local community groups in north Mayo who have decided to stay away from its deliberations. Not so comforting is the news that three Government Ministers, senior Mayo County Council officials and officials from other statutory bodies were present on the opening day, all suited, booted and on expenses. The hope is that the Community Forum set up in north Mayo last Friday will not become another ‘whipping boy’ against the local community. Representatives of some local groups claim that they wrote to the main Ministers (Éamon Ó Cuív and Eamon Ryan) seeking clarity on the Community Forum before it started. They claim that they were not even afforded an acknowledgment. The main problem with the Community Forum is that while Ministers and officials can smile for the cameras on the day, the harsh reality is being ignored. The elephant in the room is not being acknowledged – issues of concern to local people that centre on health, safety and the environment. Before the Forum even got under way the shackles of power had been tightened around its agenda – no discussion of a possible relocation of the Bellanaboy site and no revisiting of consents and permissions granted by Government departments. Already the Forum is doomed to failure by its limitations and its unwillingness to address the issues that have dogged the Corrib gas project since its inception. The only changes from the Government and Shell’s side have been the faces of the personnel dealing with the local people. The local people who raised concerns at the outset are still there, beating their drum, singing the same song that will not be silenced by cheque-book submissions. Peddling the Community Forum as a pretext for managing the benefits of the Corrib gas project for Erris and northwest Mayo and the region only adds to the problems. There are still too many unresolved issues that financial benefits, emanating from the state or Shell, are not of concern to people for whom local consent is still a major worry. How many times must it be said that health, safety, the environment and local consent are what should be tackled in any forum? What is the Government afraid of? Too many Government ‘initiatives’ associated with the Corrib gas project have been used to belittle local people. The Advantica Report, Peter Cassells’ recommendations and many other so-called reports have been used as cannon fodder against local people, to name but a few. The Community Forum will become the latest weapon against local people if local concerns are not addressed. Window-dressing is not what is needed at this stage of the Corrib saga but truth and a willingness to listen to genuinely-held concerns. The Corrib history is littered with questions. It started with Coillte’s sale of the site without any reference to the local community, which is against Government policy. When legal issues emanated over the upstream pipeline a new law was introduced by Government. When the project was floundering in the judicial bogs the Strategic Infrastructure Bill came in handy. The pipeline was welded together without permission by Shell even though a senior Government official told a judge under oath that all consents were in place. Removing the peat in Bellanaboy was ‘impossible’ at one stage, then it was done! The original planning permission for the refinery has had four alternations with another in the offing. Putting the pipeline through the bog was not an option one time, now it is perfectly feasible. The list goes on. In a recent interview the Garda Commissioner stated that he would need extra gardaí for the laying of the upstream pipeline next year, yet no decision has been made on this. Does he know something other people do not? I admit that it is not popular to highlight negatives about the Corrib project. Shell has done an excellent job with its PR machine, winding its way into every nook and cranny of life in Mayo. It has used donations and grants while also drawing on the expertise of professional people, from former journalists and clergy to senior former Council officials and former senior Gardaí. Action is taken on critical reports, sometimes directly, other times, indirectly. Of course there is pressure placed on people who make negative comments about the project. Sure, there are positives with Corrib, from construction jobs to security of supply for the State (but not at reduced prices!) It all boils down to a simple question – do the ‘rights’ of a multi-national, in association with the State and state bodies, take precedence over the rights and concerns of actual people? Put that on the Forum agenda. |
