Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

The Government amendment to this motion claims that the development of Ireland's natural resources benefits the citizens of the State — if only that were true. It would benefit the citizens if the natural resources were properly developed and under proper public supervision. However, as other Deputies have pointed out this afternoon and last evening, neither of those objectives is being fulfilled. The absence of a State body, as proposed in the motion, that would actively participate in the research and development of our mineral resources, means our off-shore reserves are largely a mystery. They are certainly a mystery to the Department which has formal responsibility for them.

The Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources is completely dependent on the information supplied to it by multinationals. This has been made patently clear in ministerial responses to questions regarding exploratory drills and the scale of deposits in different exploration blocks. The Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, last night had the gall to accuse Sinn Féin of believing in a conspiracy theory. He claimed that my party is propagating the notion that "there are considerable quantities of oil and gas off our shores, the Government and companies know about them and we are intent on giving these supposedly large reserves to multinationals for nothing". Of course, that is not what we are saying. What we are saying, and what many others also believe, is that there may indeed be such quantities but the crucial fact is that the Government does not know, either way.

The Minister does not know because the only information he has is that supplied to his Department by the private enterprise and exploration companies. We can have little faith in that information, given what we know of the record of companies like Shell, which has been caught on several occasions falsifying records including, most notably, one concerning its reserves. I understand that particular report caused considerable unease among the company's shareholders. Perhaps it is the case that they are more concerned about such matters than the Irish Government, which does not even have the status, standing or influence of a minor shareholder regarding Shell's interests in this State. Its role is more in the nature of a public relations consultant.

We know from Irish rig workers who were employed on the exploratory drills in the Corrib field that it is likely that the actual amount of gas there is larger than estimated by the consortium that controls it. Of course, the fact that there are now no Irish workers employed there means that even that sort of information flow has been closed off to us.

Unless the State has its own expertise and a dedicated body involved in this area, we are totally at the mercy of the likes of Shell. At the very best, I suggest that is naive. At worst, it amounts to a form of national derogation of duty, as a natural resource of potentially immense economic and social value is completely in the power of foreign corporations. This is an arrangement that has more in common with the way Mr. Cecil Rhodes or the East India Company operated in the British colonies than one suitable for a modern, democratic and so-called sovereign State.

My colleague, Deputy Ferris, last night referred to the release of the reports on the safety aspects of the Corrib pipeline. I reiterate his warning that, whatever spin is being placed on this by the Government and Shell, the issue is far from settled. Supporters of the current proposal, which will bring little, if any, benefit to the people of north Mayo or the people of Ireland, and at some considerable risk to the former, no doubt envisage that these reports will form the basis of a campaign to undermine opposition and to portray the Rossport objectors as unreasonable Luddites.

However, this will not work because the majority of people in this country know when they are being sold a pup. They can also recognise decent, honourable people who are standing up for what is right. A great majority of the Irish people empathise and agree with those protestors and campaigners. They also, despite the best efforts of the Government, Shell's other friends in this House and in the media, understand the fact that the Corrib gas, along with other mineral resources, have been given away. They have been given away, in large measure, by individuals who gave many things away, but only when they were getting something in return. Such returns were not for the State, the Irish people or even, as they sometimes claimed, for their own party, but for themselves. Given all that the people know, therefore, it is highly unlikely that they will support the rail-roading of the Corrib pipeline against the wishes of the community in Rossport.

Perhaps the most concise and accurate summation of the reports released with such heraldry yesterday was that delivered by Dr. Mark Garavan, who described them as "irrelevant". They are irrelevant because they do not address any of the real concerns of the people of north Mayo. They do not consider any of the alternatives including, crucially, the processing of the gas off shore. Nor do they get around the fact that opposition to the pipeline, if anything, has strengthened since the imprisonment of the five men from Rossport. One of those men, Mr. Micheál Ó Seighin, said yesterday, in the context of the Shell consortium's attempts to proceed in the same manner as it did last year, that "we will be forced to resist the imposition of a dangerous regime on our people and on our place and that applies to the entire community now". I assure the Minister of State that the Rossport community will continue to have the support of many other communities throughout the country in their just struggle and will continue to enjoy the unquestioned support of voices in this and the other House within this institution for their efforts. I support and commend the Independent Deputies on their Private Member's motion.

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