The Workers’ Party have described as shameful the payment of a mere €104 million from oil & gas multinationals over the 20 year period from 1998 in respect of yields worth many billions of euro.

Cllr. Éilis Ryan

Workers’ Party Dublin Councillor Éilis Ryan said that the income to the state was paltry in comparison to the income generated for the oil companies in the same period and the immense value of oil and gas fields in question.

“To say that we have received a mere drop in the ocean may seem like a cliché but it is a very accurate one”, said Cllr. Ryan who pointed out that the state received no royalties whatsoever in respect of the Corrib Gas field which had been imposed on the people of North Mayo at a considerable cost to the Irish taxpayers”.

“To put it in context, the Barryroe oil field was estimated to contain up to 478 million barrels of oil valued at up to $28 billion dollars. €104 million over a 20 year period for all our combined oil & gas output seems an utterly tiny amount by comparison”, said Cllr. Ryan

“This does not just amount to the siphoning off of vast amounts of revenue from the Irish state, it also means lost opportunities and vital income that could over that 20 year period have built the houses, hospitals and schools that are needed so badly today”,

Cllr. Ryan said: “This massive foregoing of revenue is not simply a matter of poor economic decision making but utterly wrong choices that were made by successive governments which have enriched oil corporations at a real cost to workers and their families.”