Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

The matter is not finished. The Taoiseach is dealing with a county and a community that introduced the word "boycott" into the English language when the agents of an imperial power imposed on the local community. History is repeating itself in a different way. The investigations to which the Taoiseach referred were not comprehensive enough to take into account all the issues of crucial importance to the community. An Bord Pleanála reversed the decision of one of its key inspectors. No planning permission was needed for the pipeline through Rossport on the basis of the Alice in Wonderland logic that it was an offshore pipeline, even though it will be laid six miles inland.

The Government has no problem giving away our natural resources for nothing to multinational corporations, as it has done in the case of the Corrib gas field, Aer Lingus, Telecom Éireann and other critical infrastructure. Apart from other considerations, does the Taoiseach ever think of his own legacy in this regard? He has said in a few years he will hang his flower baskets full time. Does he want as a permanent legacy the destruction of a landscape of great beauty by the imposition of an entirely inappropriate industrial and polluting entity so that a few dollars more profit can be made by the notorious Shell oil corporation? Will the Taoiseach recognise that, unless the Government has community consent, which it does not, the issue is not finished? Will he grant the independent commission? When the Independent Deputies raised the issue of natural resources during Private Members' business, the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources said he would revisit the terms under which licences are given to major corporations. Has that been done? When will the outcome of the review be known so that at least the people will receive royalties from their own natural resources?

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