"The Government have clearly sent the message to Shell, ‘you can do whatever you want’. Fortunately due to protest, the refinery remains unconnected to the gas field. If, as Shell planned, gas had been flowing by now, we would potentially all be dealing with a gas leak and explosion.”
Local resident
“Settling on the steps is what you're used to doing. Every organisation in this country that's what they are at. And that's what has left our youth going out to Austrailia and New Zealand and everywhere else with the last 12 months.
We'll have to fight for another day, the whole community. Ye might settle for money with them, but we are not going to.”
Michael D Higgins
"Agencies of the State got involved on the side of the developer, rather than on the side of the community. Given that alternative models were available in other countries, it was scandalous that we proceeded as we did. It reveals the mindset of certain people. I am reminded of the woman who was sent to jail in New York, who said that taxes are for small people. In this case, it seems that planning is not for big people…….
I refer again to the notion that some projects are too big for public accountability and transparency in planning. I am not making accusations that I cannot support."
Terence Conway
“If the state isn't going to carry out its moral duty to protect the people of Erris, then it falls on the ordinary people of Ireland to stand up for themselves. It's all very well being vindicated but we're still left fighting this monument to political corruption. This is just the latest deal in the whole Corrib project done behind closed doors that ends up betraying a local community which has been fighting this unwanted development for over ten years.”
Stein Bredal
“Energy prices are only going up, so why is your Minister in such a hurry, when he should be guaranteeing jobs and a greater return to the Irish taxpayer if there is a find? Norway had four brave politicians who brokered a deal with the multinationals and ensured Norway would develop expertise through setting up Statoil.”
Joe Higgins
"Even the government itself has figures that perhaps there is 10 billion barrels of oil equilvalent off our coast. There is no point, what so ever, in rushing to give control of this to private companies."
Valerie Finan
"Maybe our constitution needs to be rewritten to more accurately reflect the reality of modern Ireland. Maybe it should now say “The State is bound to protect the profits and self proclaimed economic entitlements of every industry big enough to hold sway over government policy”."
Martin Ferris
"I worked on an oil rig when there was a find on the Porcupine Bank. There was a three-day burn-off, during which time it was top secret and no one was allowed near it. No Government representative was on board. While the late George Colley came out afterwards, no one had any idea as to what was there. What some of us were told by people who were prepared to share this information was that this intelligence went straight to the company and nowhere else."
Fr. Michael Nallen
“There was no logic in the decision to prevent us observing the committee meeting in its discussion on natural resources. All we came to do was observe the workings of the committee and the people who were turned away were not participating in any protest. ... This is not credible democracy”
Ecocide
"Ecocide: The extensive damage, destruction to or loss of ecosystems of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been severely diminished."
The crime of ecocide - environmental destruction - which is being considered by the UN from submission by British lawyer Polly Higgins.
Damian Carrington blog The Guardian
Terence Conway
"Let's be clear about this: Shell's private security - IRMS - have absolutely no right to use any force on campaigners who are peacefully protesting on a public road. The fact that Gardaí would watch IRMS assault campaigners for nearly an hour on a public road is another clear example of the total suspension of the rule of law in relation to protesting against Shell."