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Press Release December 13th 2013: Senator Ned O'Sullivan attacks the Judiciary as he describes High Court judge's decision against Shannon LNG as "Appalling" . It is disgraceful and shocking that a member of the Seanad, Ned O'Sullivan, would attack the judiciary when he described, in the Seanad, Judge Cooke's decision on the Shannon LNG project in the High Court as "APPALLING". Where is the separation of powers? The Energy Regulator is INDEPENDENT. The judiciary is INDEPENDENT. Mr. O'Sullivan is advancing the interests of a private company not the public interest. We recall quite clearly that Mr. Ned O'Sullivan was a director of Shannon & Foynes Port company when, as a Kerry County Councillor, he voted to rezone the land for the proposed Shannon LNG project without declaring his interest as a director of a company that would benefit enormously from the rezoning. Illegal lobbying, interference or peddling in influence with the Regulator or Judiciary for the benefit of a company registered in the tax haven of the Cayman Islands should not be tolerated by the other members of the legislature. Or does anyone understand any of the basic checks and balances that exist in our system and which are there to prevent the democratic process from being undermined? Senator Ned O'Sullivan has undermined the democratic process in attacking the judiciary on the floor of the Seanad on December 12th 2013. -Ends- Notes to Editor Transcript of Seanad Debate from 12 December 2013: http://www.kildarestreet.com/sendebates/?gid=2013-12-12a.33 Safety Before LNG. Press Release December 11th 2013: High Court ruling against Shannon LNG Saves the Irish People One Billion Euros and highlights Cabinet Minister's attack on the Democratic process. Decision entirely vindicates position of Shannon LNG opponents as the truth comes out in the end. On behalf of the local community, we thank the High Court for upholding the logical and evidence-base decision of the Energy Regulator which did not pander to the vested interests supporting the predatorial Shannon LNG project and for dismissing the Shannon LNG challenge as "unfounded". If the LNG project does still go ahead in the end, putting lives, the environment and the strategic industrial development of the entire Shannon estuary section of Ireland's Western Arc at risk, it is satisfying to know that we will have at least saved the Irish people a billion Euros in the process because we were the first to raise this issue publicly with the Regulator in 2008. In a David-and-Goliath battle and to the sheer delight of many locals the outlawing of a price-distortion loophole will likely stop the proposed Shannon LNG project in its tracks because the company behind it will no longer have a monopoly advantage from a weakness in the Irish gas pricing system. Bord Gais
Networks, the ESRI, ESB Energy International, the National Energy
Association
of Ireland (NEAI) and even the owners of the local power station at
Tarbert
(Endesa), to name but a few, all supported the Regulator's decision.
The ESB EI
even went so far as to accuse new entrants (like Shannon LNG and Shell)
of
"free-riding" on the services that the gas interconnector provides.
It would seem that the local pro-LNG media and narrowly-focussed local
campaigning lobby will, in all probability, never be able to grasp the
full
consequences of their short-term mind set. We were told
from the outset of our campaign to "follow the money". We
learned that lip service is still only paid to what were our main
concerns of
safety, the environment and to strategic long-term planning of the
entire
Western Arc of the country. All of these have a monetary value but they
are
difficult to quantify and are easily fudged over by well-financed
lobbyists. As an old Irish saying goes:
"what's the price of the singing bird?". However, when decisions do
not make sense even on a very narrow financial criteria such as a rise
of one Billion Euros in
energy prices, then the whole LNG plan is exposed for what it really is
- a FRAUD.
Paddy Power Shannon LNG Managing director Paddy Power was already reported as saying that the "tariff could cost the company up to €75 million annually". This acceptance of a loss of a dominant market position represents a saving to the Irish consumer of up to €1 billion over 13 years. This does not even take into account any of the countless millions in losses that would occur from sterilisation of the Shannon Estuary for further port expansion due to shipping exclusion zones that would have to be put in place if the Shannon LNG project goes ahead. No LNG marine Risk Assessment has yet been conducted on the Shannon Estuary either to calculate the scale of sterilisation of the estuary that would occur. Gordon
Shearer gone Shannon LNG's
accounts up to December
2012 show that Shannon LNG have spent €51 million on the project.
However, there
is no disclosure of directors' remuneration so it cannot be ascertained
how
much Gordon Shearer was paid before he resigned as director of Shannon
LNG.
From that €51 million we note that not one sod of earth has yet been
turned on
the site and an IPPC licence is still required from the EPA before any
construction can begin. It would be interesting to know what or who
they have
spent the €51 million on to date.
Evidence-based decision-making The widely-expected result has been warmly welcomed as a victory for evidence-based decision making , a process which does not pander to vested interests.
Attack on the Democratic Process As the Regulator's decision looked more and more likely to go against the interests of Shannon LNG, heavily-lobbied Kerry politicians of all shades started to play dirty. They began openly campaigning for the Minister for Energy to illegally interfere with the independent Regulator's decision-making process. For us, this was the most frightening moment, to realise that many of Kerry's politicians, in a frenzy of mob rule, could decide to commit a breach of the public trust placed on them by undermining the democratic process and by ignoring all the checks and balances that were in place in the system for a reason. On February 20th 2012 Shannon LNG Managing director Paddy Power told Kerry County Council that “Shannon Lng will walk away from its planned €1bn investment in the Ballylongford landbank unless the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) agrees to cut tariffs that could cost the gas company €75 million a year.” Within days, six local Kerry deputies and senators - Arthur Spring (Labour), Brendan Griffin (Fine Gael), Martin Ferris (Sinn Fein), Tom Fleming (Independent), Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna F�il) and Tom Sheahan (Fine Gael) - had all spoken in the D�il and Seanad calling on the Minister for Energy Pat Rabbitte (Labour) to intervene with the Regulator's decision making process. Kerry MEP Se�n Kelly of Fine Gael then threatened to challenge the CER decision at a European level. The worst direct threats to the Regulator of all came from a sitting member of Cabinet, Jimmy Deenihan (Fine Gael), who stated to the Limerick Leader (see full article below) on May 21st 2011 “if we lose this project, there will be a major issue over the role of the regulator and how it was established”
Eventually Minister Pat Rabbitte would bring the politicians to their senses when he openly told the D�il that “Deputy Griffin is asking me to break the law. I cannot do that”.
One reason
we think they acted so disgracefully was because members of all the
main
parties did the same thing in a mob-like frenzy and their behaviour was
not challenged in
any meaningful way by the local media. We are outraged that
senior Kerry
politicians in their attempts to interfere with the office
of the Independent Energy Regulator have brought the integrity of
their office and the Oireachtas into
serious disrepute. They have advanced the interests of a private
company, not the public interest. They have behaved in a manner which
is not consistent with their roles as public representatives and
legislators. The financial
impacts of the
final CER decision will be enormous for years to come on gas consumers.
It was and is crucial, to protect the
independence of the Energy Regulator and to send a strong signal to
members of
D�il �ireann that any illegal interference, illegal lobbying or
peddling in
influence with the CER will not be tolerated Grid Access, the next battle We also now put Hess and Shannon LNG on notice that there will be another long battle over queue jumping for grid access with their proposed power station next to their proposed LNG Terminal and that we will make sure that the grid-access issue is also highlighted, thoroughly examined using an evidence-based decision making process and that all Irish people are treated fairly.
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