Search Results for 'oil and gas'

This election marks the end of an era for Galway Labour. Michael D Higgins is hopefully heading for the greener pastures of the Phoenix Park. What may prove to be a gain for Ireland is certainly a loss for the Labour Party. For many on the Left Michael D represented the party’s “conscience”.

Surprise, surprise, we didn’t win Eurovision again. The only one who seemed to think we had a chance was Marty Whelan, who kept blabbering on about how unfair the whole thing was to our little country, battling against the odds out on the edge of Europe. Let’s face it, Enda McEvoy has a better chance of getting a free weekend pass from the Cats Laugh Festival organisers than Niamh Kavanagh had of winning the competition.

Grandio

Local community groups expressed their discontent with the Forum for North West Mayo at Belmullet on Friday with a press conference being disrupted by angry outbursts from local groups who were unhappy with the procedure of the behind-closed-doors, invite-only forum.

As a new year dawns Shell to Sea is hoping it will bring some fresh thinking and has urged both the Government and Shell to halt what they term the “ill-conceived” Corrib gas project until such time as the concerns of the local community have been adequately dealt with.

Sinn Féin County Councillor Gerry Murray has condemned the introduction of the pension levy which he claims puts the burden of Ireland’s public finances on low and medium income public workers and lets the oil and gas companies off the hook once again. He described the Government’s spin doctors as shameful in their “pathetic attempt to portray and blame public sector workers as being exclusively responsible for the current economic downturn”. Cllr Murray challenged Fianna Fáil on the fairness of the public service pension levy noting that the “sliding scale in the levy discriminates against the lower paid while the oil and gas multi-nationals go untouched.”

Tensions in north Mayo have escalated once again with eight arrests over the weekend and one on Tuesday when a large number of protesters gathered for the summer Rossport Peace Camp. With the Solitaire due to arrive back in Mayo waters in the next month, the Rossport Solidarity Camp has taken up residence in Glengad in a bid to build up the resistance to Shell over the coming weeks and months. Mary Sweeney of the Rossport Solidarity Camp said: “Resistance in Mayo is building again. We’re expecting many waterborne activists from across Europe to arrive over the following weeks. The Solitaire will leave Irish waters once again with no pipeline laid.”