Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I broadly agree with the Deputy that the selling off of State assets can be short-sighted and we do not have a great record in that regard. Deputy Ó Cuív and I had an exchange of views on the fall-out from the manner in which Telecom Éireann was privatised and the way it set back the economic potential of the country by depriving it of the investment that would have been necessary for the rolling out of broadband which, like electricity in the middle of the last century, is critical in this century for economic development and social progress.

I am not sure the sale of the Irish Sugar Company was very advisable either. I was in the House when the first stake was sold, in 1990 or 1991, if memory serves. The Minister in charge of the privatising argued vehemently that it was not privatisation because the Government was keeping a golden share which it would always be able to exercise. In the event, we lost the sugar industry, unnecessarily in my view. I recall a presentation made to me in Mallow after the Carlow closure which was purely a property play. Mallow was making arrangements to transfer the Carlow machinery to its plant and the capacity existed to transfer the beet from the Carlow-Kilkenny region. However, the industry was sold - in the interest of the developing world, as we were told, but more in the interest of ranchers in Brazil and elsewhere.

For that reason, I agree broadly with Deputy Ferris. The problem is that the country is broke as a result of the decisions taken by Deputy Ó Cuív and his colleagues in Government. The deal they made with the IMF, the EU and the ECB provides for some disposal of State assets. The programme for Government provides for up to €2 billion in total of a sale of State assets to invest in employment stimulation elsewhere in the economy. The short answer to Deputy Ferris's question is that if I had a choice and we were not in the mess we are in I would not be in favour of disposal of further State assets. My broad view is I am satisfied to assess them one by one, and this may well throw up a situation where it would not damage the economic future of the country to dispose of some of them.

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