Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

As a State company, the ESB played a key role in transforming Ireland from a Third World country to a modern state. In any rational approach in dealing with the current economic crisis, is it not the case that a successful and profitable company such as the ESB should be kept in public ownership and investment be made in it to develop sustainable energy resources and so forth? This would allow us the energy independence, thus ensuring people would not have to be shivering with the cold this winter in their homes, afraid to turn on the heating because of fluctuations in energy market prices.

How does the EU and the IMF justify its insistence on the sale of State assets which could drive economic recovery? Will the Minister agree such sell-offs are actually attempts to asset strip this country, using the guise of the current recession which was caused by the bankers and bondholders in the first place? How can anyone construe an argument that a sale of even a bit of the ESB could possibly be good for this country?

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