Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This Bill is about the privatisation of an important State asset which should be retained as an asset for the benefit of the people. Much has been said by the Government that this is not a fire sale of the family silver but the sale of non-core assets needed to generate revenue for the State. This legislation, however, must be in place by the end of the year to make this sale go through. The European Commission has given the Government a deadline of 2014 to have this sale completed on foot of the EU gas directive which provides for the breaking up of gas suppliers across the EU.

Having a deadline has a serious impact on the potential price that can be achieved for this asset, however. The Government expects between €1 billion and €1.5 billion in the sale of Bord Gáis Energy but it has been reported that it could be less. I expect that to be the case because anyone looking to buy this company knows the troika and the European Commission have a gun to the Government’s head. Accordingly, any potential buyer can sit tight and run down the clock with the Government ending up having to accept a deal which might not be the best. Even if the €1.5 billion price tag is achieved, €750 million of that will go against writing off our debt. That equates to six weeks' interest payments on the national debt. We are selling off this vital public asset for the benefit of six weeks' interest. This does not make any difference to our debt. It will simply reduce it from €200.7 billion to €200 billion, a reduction of 0.4%. The sale of this asset will not make any impact or improve our debt position.

Why then is the sale of this asset happening? It is because the overall agenda in the European Union and the Government, although the Labour Party is part of it, is to use this crisis for the benefit of multinational energy companies to avail of a fire sale of state assets in Ireland, Greece and other programme countries. Angela Merkel was not joking when she said some years ago that we should not waste the opportunity of this crisis. This is not about making life better for European citizens but making opportunities for big business.

The Government also claims half of the sale price will go on job creation and a stimulus package. If we keep BGE in semi-State ownership, could it not have been used to train workers for the energy sector and be part of a recovery stimulus? No private sector company will be interested in pursuing such a programme when it takes over the company. Members have pointed out the example of the ESB which took on 400 apprentices. Bord Gáis could be doing that on behalf of the people. There are significant deficits in maintenance personnel for the renewable sector across Europe. In Ireland alone it is estimated there is a requirement for 10,000 jobs just to maintain existing renewable energy sites. Keeping Bord Gáis in semi-State ownership could give us the potential to train workers for this area. However, this will be all lost when this Bill is passed and the sale of BGE is completed.

If the company is left with the management of the transmission network and reliant on the subsidy of energy retail companies, what will happen to the extension of the transmission network? Extending the transmission network into the north west would have been a significant stimulus for Donegal, Letterkenny and Sligo. This will not happen after this sale goes through. For all these reasons, I believe this sale should be rejected as well as this legislation.

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