Mary Robinson and Eamon Ryan heckled at Ballina climate conference

FORMER President Mary Robinson and Environment Minister Eamon Ryan and have been heckled at a climate conference in Ballina Arts Centre.

While speaking at the Mary Robinson Climate Conference this afternoon (Friday), Minister Ryan was interrupted by Fridays for Futures activists, who chanted “Get up, come off it, our land is not for profit” and “From the rivers to the sea, we don’t want your LNG.”
The activists demanded that Minister Ryan expedite climate action, with one stating: “We know the solutions to the climate crisis, and yet year after year the climate crisis worsens, and Ireland’s emissions grow. We are one of the worst states in the EU.”

“We’ve been at this for years, and nobody cares,” added another activist, who accused Minister Ryan’s government of only being interested in ‘profit and maintaining the neo-liberal systems that brought us into this mess in the first place’.

The three women – who had accreditation to attend the conference - were not removed from the venue and were applauded by some other attendees for their remarks.

Maura Harrington from Shell to Sea criticised former President Mary Robinson – whom she referred to as ‘Madame Elder’ - for not making any public comment on the controversial Corrib gas project.

“There’s an awful lot to be learned from the Shell to Sea campaign, and it is awful peculiar that this is the first mention of it in a climate conference within a few miles of the site, of a light polluting, emissions polluting, rotten, out-dated, gas refinery in the middle of what was as near pristine an environment, in the barony of Erris, as was to be had,” she said.

She also demanded that Minister Ryan not facilitate Europa Oil & Gas’s plans to explore at the Inishkea gas prospect, which is located 11 kilometres from the Corrib gas field.

The UK-based company recently gave a presentation to Mayo County Council’s Economic Development SPC, who lent their support to their proposals.

The SPC was told that the exploration could potentially secure 180 jobs at the Ballinaboy gas field for the next 20 years, as well as securing 60 percent of Mayo’s gas demand for the next decade.

“Do it, or shut up,” Ms Harrington shouted.

Minister Ryan did not specifically address the Inishkea project, despite repeated interruptions by Ms Harrington, but maintained that the government needed to engage with people ‘from the bottom up, not the top down’ regarding climate issues.

Addressing concerns about communicating the issue of climate change, the Green Party TD said that the government should not ‘blame, shame or terrorise’ people in addressing the issue.

At the end of Minister Ryan’s remarks, the activists chanted: “What do we want? Climate justice. When do we want it? Now.”

The last activist to speak concluded by citing the recent closure of the River Moy fisheries due to high water temperatures.