yep – nice tan – good abs! seems to be having an all round good time up there!

would think about joining them if they weren’t such a bunch of self important eco snobs!

Is it just me or is she having a “50 Shades of Grey” moment there?

Yeah well you see it as pretty much all us normal right thinking people see it but conspiracy theorists at shell to sea would disagree with you. Just as they disagreed with the m50 m11 any future drilling for oil, the n4 at tara, any nuclear station that would make cheap clean power. Also would have opposed the electrification of Ireland and any clothes not made of hemp.

So finish the sentence. Shower of ………

The truck was moved during the day from Dublin to Sligo and very unusually the Garda did not inform AA Roadwatch about the slow moving convoy. That is a fact not at theory.

Oh right?? And how would you know it was moved during the day? Still there is a huge difference between using one lane of motorway as opposed to completely blocking a country road. Personally I would only move it at night

I’d say he knows because if you were paying more attention to the facts you’d have noticed the pictures above are credited to a ‘Niall Carson/PA’ who is obviously with/near the convoy. If your worried about ‘conspiracy theorists’ you need to look closer to home.

Meanwhile in Erris the Garda have had people under house arrest all morning in a (now failed) attempt to stop photos of the jack knifed lorry getting into circulation (see my twitter feed)

Well the last time I looked they had to rebrand their petrol stations to the name topaz because of their negative public image.

I sorely doubt that’s the reason behind their rebranding. That would have been in the works long before the Shell to Sea kicked off.

Go back to making tinfoil hats.

Lauren Halligan,

I stopped buying my gasoline and oil from Topaz. I spend €1,000 a year on both. I’ve been boycotting Topaz since 2007. So Shell have lost €5,000 from me alone.

classy… and you don’t even know how to spell schmuck

It must’ve has some effect if Shell was forced to replace their name with Topaz on all their gas stations. The boycott was clearly hurting them.

Niall Carson Im not sure about this shell to sea thing. I have read some articles about it but Im not sure we can get more money from the project only jobs & local improvements. However I have read about local concerns about accidents & environmental issues & such. In this area I would agree with the locals & sympathise with them. However if you represent these peoples views & I dont know that you do or maybe you represent the protesters & that should put you in a position not to spread misleading information. Shell did not rebrand in Ireland & topaz is not Shell in disguise. Do your research before you come on here telling others to do theres. You are damaging your right to tell others to protest.

Mjhint. I think you’ll find that Niall is correct. Shell have rebranded as Topaz in Ireland. Doesn’t matter what they call themselves really. Most of the oil companies are owned by the same corporations.

Mjhint. Shell have already commited to employing mostly foreign workers who have experience in the petroleum industry. They will be rotated every 6 months between ireland and their other foreign oil fields. This will ensure that even the workers will pay no tax to the state.

Of course Rob you do know that all Shell done was left the Irish Distribution Market a few years ago and sold their retail and distribution set ups to Topaz an Irish Company who may or may purchase their imported fuel stocks from Shell just like all the other Oil Disbution Companies in Ireland. So boycotting Topaz and buying your fuel in say Apple Green or TOP or whatever no more guarantees that you are avoiding purchasing fuel provided by Shell. Fact is that the origin of fuel is practically untreacable!

Reada wrong. Topaz is an Irish company formed after Statoil & Shell pulled out. If you do your research you will find that to be the case. BP also pulled out thats why statoil came here. The reason they pulled out was low volumes & profits here. I have done business with & for these companies & they are not involved. Shell maybe supply fuels from abroad but I dont know about these activities. Topaz would purchase fuels from various sources including the refinery in Cork & that has nothing to do with Shell.

There was never going to be much revenue in it for Ireland. Get real. Who do you think gain from this? Us? Or the politicians and Shell?

The government charges tax on any profits made by gas and oil extraction in Irish waters. They also gain from income tax, PRSI and universal social charge from the hundreds employed by Shell in the middle of the worst recession ever, as well as road tax and VRT on all vehicles and VAT on all the equibment and materials used in the building. Also, theres the money spent by the workers which keeps many locals in a job and money coming into the government in VAT, income tax etc. Thats the revenue for the government. Its quite a lot of money when you think logically about it isn’t it? Then again logic isn’t a strong point for these ‘protesters’.

Ian, have you ever heard about a corrupt little man called Ray Burke who sold off Ireland’s natural resources for tuppence halfpenny? Try Bertie Ahern who further reduced the tax rate multinational companies pay on profits?

Ian wake up. You’ve been sold a pup.

Réada has it.

From Kieran Allen’s ‘Ireland’s Economic Crash’/

“Ray Burke abolished the requirement that the state have a 50% stake in any commercial project and that royalties should be paid. Also introduced a facility to allow corporations to write off exploration, development and production expenses, extending back 25 years, against tax.
Norway imposes a tax rate of 78%, royalties of 52% and demands a 50% state ownership”

So, Ian, what says you now?

@reada you really have no idea at all. Your SF bullshit ideology is so far removed from reality it’s frightening and you are not the only one either, lisa isnt too far behind you either. Would you really be in favour of increasing corp tax? We don’t have the resources to do it ourselves. The court ruled on it, accept the decision. By rejecting it you are rejecting democracy. If you don’t like the decisions/policies of the current government then do something about it in the next election.

well then its about time we learned how to drill for the oil isn’t it? Im pretty sure Hugo chavez of Venezuela would let us come over and see how its done because you can be dam sure the big multinationals won’t want us knowing. maybe even Russia could help by selling us the equipment?

ah its probably to easy to think outside the box for us :-(

Damn right, democracy has potential to work far more effectively if people were sharper but as it is it is letting a good many of us down. As for going into politics, are you mad? People vote in the crooks and leave honest people behind, bar the exceptions like luke ming and richard boyd barrett. I don’t have a long beard and I don’t have richard boyd’s background. I would get nowhere, otherwise I’d go for election. Plenty of good people are trying and failing all round the world. too honest.

Wow David Whelan. I hadn’t realized that Kieran Allen had joined Sinn Féin. He’s very welcome though. As would you when you wake up to the fact that Labour are in the pockets of big business. They celebrated their centenary this year. How much they’ve changed since the Dublin Lock-Out. I don’t think you’re in a position to throw stones David.

@ Lisa – so you’re saying democracy has let you down? You support socialists but don’t support democracy? Oh, reading your post again, it’s not democracy that’s the problem, it’s just that Irish people are just not sharp enough for democracy. That’s us alright, dim sheepish yokels. Thanks for your vote of confidence for you fellow citizens. Clearly you rise head and shoulders above the rest if us. What I’m a but too stupid to understand is that I always thought socialist-influenced thinking was based around a healthy respect for your fellow comrades as equals. But then, I’m a bit if a thicko. I’m sure you can spell it out in simple words for me.

Your an idiot do you think shell are here for the fun of it. do some research theres billions worth of oil and gas out there that our government wants to give away at a time when we have the largest debts in history.

I agree Ireland hasn’t the resources right now to explore a cat for fleas but the record of Irish governments in securing deals with multinationals regarding state assets such as gas, fishery and mobile ph. licences etc. would make one wonder did the priorities lie with the welfare of the nation or party political funding through corporate donations and personal backhanders.

Moi, an idiot? I think not. Aside from that capacious reservoir between your earlobes it’s a moot point as to what gas is out there and how economical it is to extract. Hence why the multinationals are required as the state has not got the money or the knowhow.

I’m on the fence of this one but what does it matter if half of the people never worked an ‘honest’ day in their life?
Does it matter what anyone actually does as a job or during their 9-5?

Personally I wouldn’t care if you worked like a dog, or never worked at all.
It makes you no less of a person…

A nice sentiment Aranthos, at first glance, but if you’re not working in this society, and you haven’t won the lotto, then you are living, to a degree, by dint of the efforts and endeavour of others, and there is nothing commendable in that whatsoever. It is for that very reason (amongst others) that the vast majority of those on the dole wish to be off it as quick as possible.

Yeah well said Ian. Such a shocking waste of Garda time and resources which could be much better used elsewhere.

Mr O’Callaghan, Do you realize how silly you sound? Obviously you and James have never “worked” a truck! Just thinking about that “solution” makes me realize that one can find, even in the Journal.ie, posters who don’t have a clue what the hell they’re opining about.

@ Rob : using the verb “opine”? dear oh dear oh dear. I do truly hope that you are a well-crafted piece of satire, otherwise…

160 tons on a bog road. Mother Nature fights back. She can be a bitch but there’s times you gotta love her. ;)

Nice name ….Appropriate !

Predictable. You said it. Be careful with those stones you’re flinging in that glasshouse.

JTHM
What do you mean by that comment ?

Agree Johnnie. A nation of sheeple is what we’ve become. At least if we’re going to sell off OUR natural resources, then charge them a super tax to extract it. Don’t just give it away for a fraction of its real worth.

Nation of back-stabbers? Somebody cry Johnnie a river..

@ Andrew : please, “sheeple” is not a word. You are aware you’re insulting your friends, family and peers?

Really. How are you going to heat your home this winter? Run your car, bike, moped or use public.transport? If they are raping the world then we as consumers are complicit in that action.

Well if they were moral and ethical companies i wouldn’t mind but they aren’t and never have been.

If successive Irish governments looked after their people’s interests before those of big business you’d have to pay a lot less to heat your home in the future Paul. There are plenty of points to argue on this thread and you chose this one? Holy cow.

Ireland how come I still love you even though you give me so many reasons to hate you? :(

I would be careful about using the word rape. I thought you Shell to Sea types were quite sensitive about that word being used out of context.

@Derek, there is no such thing as a moral or ethical buisness. You might get different companies saying they do this and that,offering up the odd philanthrophic piece of work. In the end it is all just smoke and mirrors. We like to think that we buy this product because it is a ‘Fair Trade’ one etc
It is all bs, those poor fellahs are getting screwed as well.

As for the protests. Speaking to a number of friends in the Ballina area. They do talk of a lot on non-locals protesting and driving it on. Different agendas going on there.

Progress ? Explain please .

Same here just google what theyre doing to the people up there and you’ll get the truth

Actually there is. I do recall media stories of persons linked to subversive organisations attending rallies there.

Anyway we we all look back and have a chuckle in a year or two. Same result as when the protesters tried to stop the n 4 and m11. What was result ?? A lot of happier WORKING people who get home to see families faster

Completley agree- it’s shocking how many people pass judgement on the local people of Mayo without even looking into what they fight for!

To summarise – no one is against gas being bought in – what they are against is the fact it will be the highest pressured pipeline in the world, combine that with the fact it is passing by many homes before it is refined leaving those people with 20 seconds to evacuate the area or die if the pipe leaks as the typical smell we associate with gas isn’t added until it reaches the refinery, then combine that with the fact the boggy area is prone to landslides! Levels of aluminium found in the local drinking supply since Shell began construction have been 400 times over the WHO safety guidelines! Then look at the fact Ireland makes nothing from the gas thanks to Ray Burke and Bertie Ahern changing the rules to suit Shell – No Royalties, all tax can be written off – explain how making nothing makes sense! The media are completely biased in their reporting, and with vested interests why would they be anything else – they only ever tell one side!

Then the talk of Shell creating jobs is rubbish – a handful and I mean a tiny handful were created – if that – they bought in all their own security, workers ect meanwhile job losses in the area as a result of Shell arriving have been huge – fishing in the area has been damaged – People moan about the small local people in Ireland cutting bog and destroying EU areas of conservation, well surely it should be the same rules for Shell – I’ve visited the area and Shell have been let destroy it despite it being a special EU area of conservation – why is it one rule for a corporation and one rule for the people!

Look I’m not expecting everyone to agree with all my points, but they’re the facts that many people don’t know cause they don’t bother to look..at the very least get out there and read up on both sides of the Shell to Sea story before passing judgement. I did exactly that and I was shocked at how much the mainstream media has kept from us. NO one should be passing judgement before examining the full picture – I’ve even been down their and witnesses first hand what the poor locals are going through – and all because of the typical Irish attitude of shutting up and saying nothing as long as it’s not on their doorstep – well just imagine if it was!

Yes Shane. Can’t wait to see what spin the Irish media will put on Tony O’Reilly’s interests in the Kish basin off Dublin. Looking forward to reading how they’ll turn the residents of Dalkey into krusties. Probably interview a few with accents so posh they’ll sound like English new agers – have to keep the sheep entertained ;)

Shane,

All the people complaining about the protestors are typical snobs who would get a well-deserved slapdown in public. Typical middle class cowards.

@Mark Dalt

Exactly.

Keep the disgrace yourselves comments to yourself, thanks very much. Maybe the Irish people have enough going on in their life without adding this to it.

Like losing jobs is enough going on in ur life and getting taxed to the hilt please wake up!!

Lisa is right. Its beyond disgraceful. We are the laughing stock of the world time and time again. Docile sheeple who do what we are told by the big boys.

Before we had the Shell protests the farmers of Mayo were up in arms and assaulting hill walkers. Add a few years and a few hippies and drunks take up all the Garda resources in the name of the downtrodden of Mayo. Where are your Politicians in all this ? None have the balls to make a stand either way. Get your Politicians off their fat arses and give the Garda resources back to where they are needed !

David there was a politician who stood up for them and he didn’t get anything out of it, in terms of votes, from what I remember. Dr. Jerry Cowley. It’s thankless work, always.

Sheep me hole. This issue has been done to death in the courts. They’re not going to stop it at this stage – all this is about is acting the maggot and running up huge bills for the state which others will have to pay.

Let’s put this into perspective – how many schools or hospitals could have been upgraded or saved from closure with all the money this has cost? How many jobs saved?

These chaps need to get it that public sympathy has evaporated, the courts have ruled now pack up and move on.

David completely agree. Here is fact for you willy corduff one of the main farmers involved in shell to sea did you know that during the electricifcation of Ireland his father actually opposed it in much the same ways he is doing now.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Corduff

Take a read :) like that movie deliverance with the duelling banjos ya just can’t beat a small gene pool :)

Well said Lisa. Love your analogy about the tv and the crap station. Never a truer word said.

And cop yourselves on re Shell providing Irish jobs to the area. Since when does a multinational company give a hoot about providing jobs. The courts ruled alright after a corrupt gangster Ray Bourke sold us short.

How Irish governments have sold off our national assets is beyond a disgrace and that there are not more Irish people attending these protests even worse. Don’t forget your reactions here when you’re dropping your kids to the airport when they make that lifestyle choice to emigrate or worse, when you’re burying them from suicide sold out by a government that looks after big business before their people.

@lenore: Don’t you mean how much more money could’ve been paid to bondholders? Hospitals and schools wouldn’t have seen a penny.

Wow @James O’Donoghue just wow – did you even read what it is you claim- the site you reference states: “Willie’s father campaigned against the introduction of electricity to selected areas of the country, as part of the Marshall aid after World War 2, as it was proposed to bring electricity to the towns only and leave those on rural farms and areas outside of the towns without any supply” i.e. he was campaigning about the fact that people in rural Ireland were to be left without electricity..he wasn’t campaigning against the electrification of Ireland..looks like you need to get a lot of facts straight before you start pointing the finger again!

Poppy I did read it. Now really if your rolling out huge technology do you not start with urban areas and stretch out from there?

Kinda stupid if you didn’t don’t ya think?

So please if you read a link think about how large scale developments would have to be accomplished then comment

David if you read it then why did you say his father opposed the electrification of Ireland..clearly your confused!! I believe he had every right to campaign about rural Ireland being left behind once again, at the end of the day where you live in the country should have no effect on your right to such facilities ect, clearly in Ireland it does though, given that the people of this area are living in a hospital blackspot to make this situation even better – what a lovely thought to have a night as you sleep beside unrefined gas running through what will be the highest pressured pipeline in the world! Seriously David do some proper research on the area and the people before you go slagging them off – they are some of the nicest Irish people I have ever met – people like you think they should just suffer and shut up – open your damn eyes and really put yourself in their situation for a change instead of making uninformed and ignorant comments!

@Poppysmith. I take it you meant the article on getting my facts right was meant for James !!
They may be lovely people but why do they come across as the opposite. As you mentioned Willie Corduff, where is he in this ? He and others were very prominent in the early days but others seem to have taken over their cause. My point is; The Community is split down the middle and Politicians are doing nothing and getting away with it. March on Dail Eireann with the same venom and they might make some progress.

Sorry David, I meant James :o!! In response to why you think they don’t come across as lovely people have you ever met them or been down to that part of Mayo to see for yourself? You can’t judge a person by their media portrayal – The media, like it or not, is, for the most part, owned by large corporations – why then would they tell the truth about Shell when they essentially represent the same thing? The media industry is struggling to make money, the last thing they want to do is tick off someone like Shell. I studied journalism and discovering how bias the media is came as quite a shock to me – the media have a duty to report all sides in an unbiased manner but they fail in that time and time again, they leave out quotes, only speak to one side or pick an extremist from the other side all of which make their reporting sway in favour of whoever it is they want to please or towards whatever their own views are. That’s the true reality of journalism today – to get the full picture you have to get out their and do your own digging – which is why I ended up supporting the local people of Mayo!

Polticians are a joke in this country but the people have marched to the dail time and time again, it gets so little media attention though, unless it’s negative! People really need to go out and get all the facts for themselves before they believe what the papers say!

the great majority of people aren’t really complaining about this

But it wasn’t just the locals, though was it? It seemed like (I’m expecting mega thumbs downery for this) every class of crusty and misfit from Mizen Head to Malin Head and beyond headed down to Rossport to have a crack at Shell and the Gardai.

@the lost lenore – you’re pretty much right, talk to anyone who drives from Ballina towards Belmullet and you will hear about the people hitching with their backpacks towards the shell to sea protest, doubt many loclas would be hitching back to it with back packs. I am a Mayo person born and bred, live within 40 miles of the thing, its a joke, most people round here really don’t give a damn about the protests, are fed up with the import a protester lot that are down there while all the whinging seems to be done by people from outside the county.

Crusties and missfits eh? Think you should read up a bit ”the lost lenore” : http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92865

Indymedia actually makes Fox news look fair and balanced.

Faceless Man
In the interest of balance I will happily read any links you care to post refuteing the connections between fascist elements and certain ‘security’ personal deployed at Glenagad.

We will stop acting like slaves when you stop acting like stroppy teenagers and debate without relying on insults and invective. The hypocrisy is staggering. If you truly believe that you are better than those you condemn, then practise what you preach.

Go home and have a shower crusties. Disgust from Dublin.

David: “Ignorance” can be defined as “an irrational antithesis”. There’s nothing “irrational” about the “antithesis” engendered by your ilk (or anyone like you).

Typical comment I’d expect from a Blueshirt. Don’t engage with the real argument, too difficult to explain giving away the country’s natural resources for nothing and the continuation of the policy by FG/Lab (and that’s what we’ll get once Shell write off all those expenses) so attack the opposition and tar them all with the same brush as being foreign crusties though that is not the truth. Not too dissimilar from Kenny during Question Time in the Dail. Tough question from Gerry Adams – reply with quip about Northern Bank ignore question. Tough question from Michael Martin – reply with quip about Bank Guarantee, ignoring his own backing and continuation of it, refuse to answer question.

David,

You are a moral disgrace.

The gardai have a duty to protect irish people so who is paying them to protect shell oil??

I’m not certain on this now but you won’t find too many bankers in fields in Erris or on the side of the Sligo road in Ballina. If you want to protest against the bankers and developers go protest about them in Dublin. This isn’t pick and mix protesting. Yet another example of the incoherent shambles that is the Shell to Sea campaign.

I will be voting for Sinn Fein in the next election.

Can’t have one set of standards for one group of people and another set of standards for another group can we Lisa? That would be wrong wouldn’t it? That’s what’s happening with Shell isn’t it? Doing things by their own rules? Don’t be a hypocrite.

Ummm I think maybe, just maybe that the locals are very very VERY supportive of the employment and of the project as a whole.

James, you’re content with accepting scraps. We’re simply not getting our bang for the buck here. Natural resources aren’t simply there to provide a couple of jobs for the locals – they belong to all of us, and should be used to assist funding the state as a whole, and not for keeping a few voters in the area content.

If past and present Governments didn’t squander all of our cash during the Celtic Tiger, we could have focused it on drilling technology and research – so we could become self-reliant. But they simply lacked the vision to do so, and have become extremely lackadaisical about selling off our natural resources that could be more favourable to the state.

The people living in the blast radious of a pipeline failure are all against the project. As are most of those nearby whose work is based on tourism or farming. Those who live a good distance off are more mixed as some of them can get the short lived and mostly low paid jobs the project created without having to worry about either massive failure (AKA getting burnt alive) or long term environmental destruction and the loss of tourism/fisheries & farming. In the country where 5,000 would demonstrate for Quinn we should we surprized by that sort of ‘I’m all right Jack’ short term thinking among some.

Oh Sean I could not agree with you more. Of course we should have got better deal or focused on drilling but coulda shoulda woulda. We didn’t and can’t change that now deal is done.

But as far I am aware and Im very open to correction on this shell, bp and Exxon drill all over the world and pay what is the market rate.

At any rate those protesting are career protesters that don’t have a life outside of this. Here one week, fake farm the next, and what was that reclaim the streets thing. I did notice that during the reclaim the streets thing that we heard VERY little from mayo.

Connection??

Err James go and do some research before expressing such definite opinions. Ireland has the lowest take from Oil & Gas companies of anywhere in the world. Google Oil & Gas Giveaway for more from multiple sources. And protests in Rossport started in 2005. Not sure which Reclaim the Streets you might be referring to but the bigs ones where 2002/2003 – 3 years earlier. If you going to invent strange conspiracies at least check your dates.

Again the simple desert dweller camel herders and fishermen in baron lands in the Middle East exploit their natural resources become incredibly wealthy.
Whilst our ”fine leaders” sell ours in the dail bar for the price of a round of drinks.
The Irish government are a joke.

Well done to Shell to Sea. Respect from Meath.

The last government had 14 years and couldn’t even get the Health Service right. Good luck getting them to spend money properly on R&D for oil exploration.

Nationalisation is only a benefit to the people if the State can turn a profit and let’s be honest folks, that won’t happen.

David nationalisation isn’t the only way of getting income for health & education from the corporations. Bringing back a royalty like that which existed before Ray Burke (yes thatRay Burke) abolished it would be another. A third would be to follow Iraq (yes Occupied Iraq) and pay the corporations for each unit extracted but retain ownership – the current setup is the worst possible

Career protesters is right James

The Irish public by majority support the pipeline, the opposition is from a few misguided locals and career protestors blown in from as far as the UK. Theyre a disgrace and Im glad to see the gardai are not backing down in using the law against these criminals.

They move from protest to protest mayo to reclaim the streets to DALE farm (correcting earlier post) same protesters different events

Yes Ray Burke was a corrupt mess, however that doesn’t change the fact that before the government of the day made it potentially lucrative, nobody was even bothering to look for oil/gas off our coast. We would not even know that it is there. Now that we do know that we have these natural resources we should be putting up the royalties for all future finds. The first one, given the complete and utter lack of interest beforehand, was always going to have to be backed by a relatively cheap deal to attract in companies to prospect, taking on the full cost of same themselves. This deal will see profits charged at 25% tax. All future ones should face a sales tax of 40%. This project has given a huge jobs boost to an isolated area in an awful economic time. The knock on affect to the local economy through ancillary services has been of great benefit to the of Erris.

Also, people talking about “Blast-radius” and “potential disasters” are talking rubbish. The only report that cast a doubt on the project was a Forfás report in which it stated that “BS8110 is out of date and therefore may impact the safety of the project”. As an Engineer, that is the same as me say that “the law on murder is out-of-date and all those convicted under it should be immediately released” without giving one iota of justification for my reasoning. It’s madness. BS8110 and all the British Standards are constantly reviewed and, in the past number of years, have been extensively used to form the new Eurocodes for construction. They are inherently strict and safe. The Forfás report was a disgrace and has given rise to a lot of scaremongering as to the viability of this project. Career protesters are doing what they do best up there. Calling for an end to development at all costs and using any tactic they see fit without any democratic support. (The candidates that ran in the last elections in that area on this issue were all rejected by the people).

MY OIL AND GAS – IRELAND vs NORWAY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76VOnzXQMsU

Tom there is 600 billion plus of Gas & Oil off the Irish coast. Under the current deals companies are given these resources and pay NO royalties. They are required to pay tax after they deduct ‘costs’ and we all know how good corporations are at creating and moving costs around to minimise tax liabilities. So even if the Shell to Sea campaigners did nothing but fight the Great Gas & Oil Giveaway they would do doing a huge amount for health & education because a proper royality regimes would result in tens if not hundreds of billions flowing in over the next 50 years.

As to Garda costs – these arise because the Irish state is using the Garda to impose a deeply unpopular project on the people of the area. Indeed those costs only exist because people continue to resist but the solution to that is to withdraw the Garda not to demand the resistance stops.

Tom where were you when hospitals were being closed and teacher numbers being cut and all those other injustices that have made your heart bleed? Rather than concerning yourself with Gardaí resources being stretched protecting Multinational companies you should be worrying yourself about the reasons why.

where were you when these governments gave away billions to unsecured bondholders instead of hospitals?

@Workers Solidarity – From what I read there’s been 140 exploratory wells dug at a cost of around €50m a pop. Four of these have proven economical to tap. So… from my reading of the situation there might be oil and gas, there might not. If you can find it that’s half the battle – it’s still got to be extractable in an economically viable way with current technology. Technology this state doesn’t and won’t have.

Floating this concept that there’s hundreds of billions in oil and natural gas out there just waiting for any Tom, Dick or Harry to come along and extract is obviously stretching the boundaries of credibility. What you want to do is keep the taxes low and let the multinationals dig away until they’ve found some more. THEN you up the state’s cut – when you can reasonably believe there’s more out there.

Very True. Scratch a hippy and uncover a fascist. Perusing the comments above shows the modern Irish leftist absolute contempt for the opinions of others. You deserve the society we have. You did contribute to it, after all.