New Report, Same Old Recommendation - “Give Away Our Natural Resources!”
A recent report by Wind Energy Ireland claims that the offshore wind industry has the potential to add at least €38 billion euro to the Twenty-Six Counties’ economy over the lifetime of all currently functioning offshore wind farms.
The report also calls for the Twenty-Six County government to increase funding to aid in the up-skilling of workers, along with fast-tracking the provision of relocation grants to attract skilled workers to the state in order to plug gaps in the offshore wind sector.
These requests would be reasonable if they were to assist in the building of a state-owned energy system which would benefit Irish families and businesses for generations to come - but they are not. These requests are just another attempt by the private sector to benefit from public funds; just another attempt by Big energy to profit off of Ireland’s vast renewable energy sources.
That the report would argue in favour of this is hardly surprising, the gombeen class have always put the interests of private Big Energy corporations first. For decades, the gombeen establishment have enthusiastically transferred public wealth into private hands, with this policy rampant across all sectors of the Irish economy - our natural resources especially.
Over the decades, the rights to mine and profit from billions of euro worth of our natural resources - including copper, lead, zinc, oil and gas - were given away to private corporations. Ironically, the report claims many of the difficulties faced by the offshore wind industry are caused by the absence of a large oil and gas industry in Ireland.
Not only has the giveaway of the Corrib Gas Field to Shell and its partners resulted in a situation where the ownership of a valuable natural resource lies in private hands, but it is now also having a knock-on effect on the wind energy sector.
If the same disastrous policies that led to the giveaway of the Corrib Gas Field are allowed to happen with our wind energy resources, the scale of the latter giveaway will make the former look like a drop in the ocean!
Ultimately, we cannot rely on the private sector to deliver energy security and independence, as the goal of Big Energy corporations is to maximise profit.
The state alone has the land, finances, legal powers and other resources to deliver a dramatic increase in green electricity - along with energy independence.
That is the vision at the heart of Éirígí’s Power To The People campaign - a publicly-owned, low-carbon energy system that will provide secure, low-cost energy to Irish homes and Irish businesses.
Play your part in the fight for energy justice and For A New Republic, join Éirígí today.
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