"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.”
William Hederman
"Oil companies are entitled to a 100% tax write-off of all exploration and developments costs extending back to 25 years before the field goes into production. These include the costs of all the other unsuccessful wells the company has drilled in Irish waters; the cost of dismantling the project; and costs incurred in other countries. They can even include the legal costs associated with having stubborn farmers committed to prison."
SIPTU
"A 2007 report by the GAO [US Government Accountability Office] examined 142 fiscal systems and confirmed that Ireland had the second lowest rate of government take of all the countries studied (Cameroon had the lowest). Of these 142 fiscal systems, only 34 resulted in government take of less than 50% (50% being twice the rate of Ireland). Indeed, in 60 of these fiscal systems rates of government take are over 70%."
David Horgan
"Paying off local people in a legitimate, lawful way goes a long way."
Andy Rowell
"[Big Oil] is an industry that bullies and effectively bribes its way to get what it wants. ....It is an industry that has no qualms about using force to quash dissent. It is an industry that colludes with the State to silence and oppress its critics. It is an industry that manipulates the press and twists the truth."
Sandra Steingraber
"From what I could see in Montana, the torch of Wild West lawlessness is now being carried by Wall Street–backed energy corporations, while the real-life cowboys are trying to find things in the law that will slow down the rate of plundering, raise the cost of plundering, or make the plundering marginally less accident-prone."
Caoimhe Kerins
“It is staggering that Mr Rabbitte is not aware that Irish consumers will pay the same price for gas from Corrib as they pay for gas sourced from Norway. This fact was confirmed most recently by the head of the ESB, Padraig McManus.”
Maura Harrington
"This is about a sense of place and its people....They say we are opposed to progress, and laugh at us. But to me, progress is the ability to sustain yourself, and those who come after you. It's nature and nurture: what we here call muinhin, which means of the place, and cointeann, which means to get a little awkward when that place and its people are about to be torn apart."
Contaminated Crow
"For Rossport and Bhopal, in both India and Ireland a corrupt and collusive post-colonial political elite appear happy to sacrifice their citizens on the altar of national development, while supporting foreign multinationals using untried technology in the pursuit of profit and endangering public health and safety."
Laurence Cox
"In the late 1970s, an alliance of mass movements stopped plans for nuclear power in Ireland at Carnsore Point in Wexford. If anywhere has the capacity to be the Carnsore Point of the 2010s - a place where the machinery of destruction and impoverishment can be stopped in its tracks, and where social movements can rally around the development of alternatives for Irish development - it is Rossport."
Terence Conway
“It's a disgrace that Gardaí, whose colleagues are currently under investigation for joking about raping protesters, are cable-tying the legs of protesters up on top of tractor cabs.”