"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.”
Colm Rapple
"Mr Rabbitte [Minister for Energy] is still intent on issuing licences under the new round due to close for applications next month. This is nothing short of scandalous and in no way justified by the general arguments he put forward."
An Taisce
"The only thing Stanley-Smith [Chair of An Taisce] says that is certain, is that if the pipeline is developed in contravention of EU environmental law, Irish taxpayers will have to foot the bill for fines amounting to tens of millions of Euro for non-compliance with EU directives. This will be in addition to seeing their resource squandered through the short-sightedness of previous Governments and decisions by the like of former Minister Ray Burke."
Finian McGrath
"We never got to the bottom of the deals signed with oil and gas companies, particularly during the time of former Minister, Ray Burke. Were back-handers given and did the major parties receive significant donations from these companies? These are legitimate questions which should be answered immediately, and our people deserve the truth. We must get all the facts regarding these big companies."
Alf Nilsen
"This is one example of how neo-liberalism furthers what we call accumulation by dispossession, which means turning commonly-owned goods into private capital and into something which only a few people can benefit from, and where most people lose out."
"Does Statoil really want to be part of this kind of politics, which is so different from the policy we have followed in Norway? Does Statoil really want to take part in a project where the Irish police are using patriarchal techniques of power like threats of rape?"
Dáil Protestor
"Isn't it amazing that the few bad apples all happened to be in the same bad car down in Mayo"
Joe Higgins
"When the Minister for Justice [Alan Shatter] was asked on radio this morning about this, he spoke instead about the economic benefits of the Corrib Gas and could only find words of condemnation for those who object to giving our natural resources for nothing to multinational corporations. Which condenmation includes the two women the subject of this disgusting remarks who were there to protest at this government and preceding governments policy with regard to Corrib."
Dr Bríd Connolly
“This recording is an affront to women, an affront to freedom to protest, and rape is not a joking matter. How can women who have been assaulted have any confidence in the Garda if this is the sort of attitude that prevails? It undermines the work done with the Garda by rape crisis centres and Women’s Aid, and takes us back 40 to 50 years”
William Callaghan
"Since my first visit to the Rossport area in May 2005, I have returned too often to count. So why are people like me drawn to this place? It’s not just its natural beauty, though that is a factor. It’s not just the inspiring spirit, determination and brave direct action of a people under siege in an isolated community, though that is something that has brought tears to my eyes and changes to my outlook on life.
Mainly it is because the Corrib Gas saga raises the question: what kind of society do we want to live in?"
Padraig McManus
"We are not going to get Corrib Gas cheaper than gas from anywhere else. You know gas is an international commodity so we'll pay the same price as getting it it from the UK"
Fintan O'Toole
"Economic and scientific elites are prey to delusions that the unlikely will not happen. The rest of us pick up the pieces when it does."