Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 1 July 2014

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance

National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Committee Stage

6:50 pm

Photo of Pearse DohertyPearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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I move amendment No. 14:


In page 26, to delete lines 3 and 4.
This relates to section 19, which deals with financial and commercial advisory functions relating to designated bodies. Amendment No. 14 proposes to delete the lines relating to where the agency will make any proposals on the acquisition or disposal of any interests in a designated body. As I mentioned earlier, this obviously relates to the privatisation of some of our State bodies. We believe this is a Trojan horse that allows this take place in legislative form.
Amendment No. 15 would delete the Minister's power to ask the NTMA to manage the disposal of a State asset. Section 19(3) states:
The Agency shall, if a Minister of the Government who is a relevant Minister in relation to a designated body requests it to do so, provide project management services in relation to, or services consisting of overseeing -
(a) any acquisition or disposal of any interest in, or any assets of, the designated body, or
(b) any winding up, reorganisation or restructuring of the designated body
The first part of this means that NewERA can provide advice to the Minister in regard to the disposal of any designated body and the second means the Minister can request NewERA to be the project manager of the disposal or winding up of any agency. I believe it provides for this without any appropriate accountability.
Amendment No. 16 inserts a provision to try to strengthen section 19(3)(b), because we know the Government is hell bent on facilitating the privatisation of some of our State assets. In order to strengthen this subsection, we propose that "any request from a Minister under this subsection requires the prior approval of the Houses of the Oireachtas."
Amendment No. 18 is grouped with these amendments, but relates to section 20. The amendment seeks to tie the hands of the Minister by requiring the Oireachtas to give prior approval to any move to sell off State assets, through the insertion of an addition to the subsection stating: "and any request from a Minister under this subsection requires the prior approval of the Houses of the Oireachtas."
Basically, our first two amendments, Nos. 14 and 15, try to ensure that the power does not exist to sell off our family silverware either through providing advice to do so or by allowing the Government outsource the sale to the agency, for example by asking it to get rid of Coillte or another body. The second two amendments, Nos. 16 and 18, provide that if the Government is not agreeable to Nos. 14 and 15, and if the section remains, the prior approval of the Houses of the Oireachtas will be required.