David Norris (Independent)

I listened to Senator Mansergh's contribution with great interest and in response to his last comment I would say that Shell really needs to revise its entire ethos and modus operandi. The company stinks worldwide, but we were not sufficiently aware of this fact and we have let them away with potential murder in this country. If, as Senator Mansergh also said, international business will look at what is happening here, then let them look. Let them see that Irish people and the Government have standards. It seems extraordinary that five decent, respectable people in the community were sent to jail at the instigation of Shell Oil. These men did not have to go to jail but they were pushed into that position by the company. It also seems extraordinary that they were jailed while trying to defend their own homes, welfare and possibly even their lives, which should be a constitutional imperative.

Some technical aspects emerged from the court proceedings that may require the attention of the Oireachtas. I was astonished, for example, to find that when the men went to court to seek an injunction they were told by the judge that they could not have an injunction because they were in contempt of court. How many other civil and human rights are extinguished by the fact that one is held to be in contempt of court? How does the law of contempt work? Following a conversation with a learned judge recently, I understand that the concept of contempt came originally from the ecclesiastical courts. It is unsatisfactorily defined in legislation and it is left to the decision of a judge based on a certain amount of precedent. That is not satisfactory, particularly when it has been highlighted that these men were sent to jail on this basis.

These men were right to protect their homes. There used to be a saying that "the Englishman's home is his castle". Ironically, in Finnegan's Wake, James Joyce changes that saying to read, "the Irishman's home is his coffin". The Rossport five were afraid of an untested pipeline with unusually high pressures passing within 70 m of their homes, which constitutes a real and definite threat.

From the beginning, the whole process has been vitiated by different ministerial decisions. The decision of Coillte to sell 400 acres without advertisement or any attempt at public tendering had an effect on Shell's commercial decisions. Once the company had that block of land it predetermined the location and route of the project and, thus, Shell was under no pressure to do anything more in that regard. That was a significant failure of imagination on the part of the authorities.

The former Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Fahey, signed the Corrib development plan in April 2002. It sounds very bland to sign such a plan but this act legally committed the State to support Shell and it was done prior to the granting of planning permission. It was done on the basis of the Department's own marine licensing vetting committee but the MLVC did not consider a shallow water platform so how did the project come about?

I wish to place on the record of the House what the senior officer of An Bord Pleanála said about this decision: "How the MLVC came to its conclusions would appear to be beyond the realms of a rational approach to the planning of this major infrastructural development and exhibits nothing short of prematurity." It is beyond rationality. First, this block of land was granted and, second, we had this unusual support based on what is seen as a flawed argument by the Government.

Should we feel secure because Shell is involved? I do not think so. If we look at the company's track record internationally, we can see it is good at spin. It bought into things like National Geographic and it sponsors environmental programmes on television, while simultaneously destroying the environment in places such as Nigeria. Its modus operandi although subtly changed from Nigeria is in essence precisely the same and reveals a complete contempt for local people as long as it can get the Government on its side and its PR merchants in with the spin.

Let us consider the record in Nigeria. Shell Oil was complicit in the fact that the Nigerian Government hanged nine environmentalists for protesting peacefully in 1995. The tribunal that convicted the men was a joint effort between Shell and the Nigerian Government. These people protested because of the enormous amounts of oil spillage in their territory against which they were totally unprotected. Between 1976 and 1991 some 2,976 oil spills occurred in the Niger delta. A World Bank investigation found that the levels of hydrocarbon pollution in Ogoniland were more than 60 times the US limits. This was confirmed in 1997 by a Project Underground survey which found petroleum hydrocarbons in one Ogoni village's water source at 360 times the limit set for the European Community. This is the respect for the environment that Shell Oil has in Nigeria.

Let us consider how Shell copes with this situation. In Nigeria as in Ireland there is a rebellious local population. Shell uses the local existing institutions to hand. In Ireland there is a complacent Government and requirements are placed on judges to make certain decisions. I do not criticise the Judiciary in that it is working with what it has. Shell contributes to the military funding in the areas where it needs to suppress the people. Shell has admitted that it has paid directly for visits to two villages in Ogoniland. These visits were as a result of a peaceful demonstration by the local inhabitants. It has also admitted purchasing weapons for the local police force which guards its facilities. Many people believe that Shell's involvement in the military aspect is much greater.

Bearing in mind that the police are partly funded by Shell Oil, a classified memorandum from a police leader in this area described his plans for "psychological tactics of displacement-wasting". This is what Shell is doing in the west of Ireland; it is displacing the people. The memorandum further stated: "Shell operations are still impossible unless ruthless military operations are undertaken." It is prepared to be ruthless militarily and it is prepared to be ruthless in its involvement in the courts. Let us consider what it did in the trial of Ken Saro-Wiwa. We now know that two significant witnesses in that case were suborned by Shell with offers of money and employment in the Shell group.