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

It is shameful that any Government, particularly one which includes the Labour Party, would consider selling any part of a vital strategic public asset like the ESB, Bord na Móna or Coillte. It is even more shameful that it is being done under the diktat of the European Union and the IMF to pay off the private debts of bondholders, speculators and vultures of the financial market.

It is extraordinary that because of the greed of people in the private banking system who crashed the European economy, the response demanded by the European Union and the IMF, and implemented by the Government, is to take another vital area of the economy and hand it over to the same privateers and profit and greed driven people who crashed the financial system. It beggars belief.

It is the definition of betrayal, sell-out and economic treason that any Government would consider giving away even a part of something as important as the ESB. It is a slippery slope to begin privatising the ESB. The State was transformed from being a Third World country to a modern state primarily as a result of a public enterprise, the ESB, assisted by other publicly owned enterprises such as Bord na Móna.

Now, when the vultures of the private market have failed us, is the time we need such enterprises most. We need to invest in them to put people back to work and put our economy on a rational and sound footing. We need to invest in the things our society needs. We should aim for energy security, infrastructure and the provision of jobs for the people. I challenge the Government to tell me if it or the European Union and the IMF can put forward any justification why in a so-called rescue package it is a good idea for us to sell our vital state assets. How does that help economic recovery?

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