Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)

Those who favour the privatisation of State companies often accuse their defenders of being purely driven by ideological motives. In fact, it is clear that ideological motivation is more often to be found on the side of the supporters of selling off State assets in combination, of course, with the desire to provide plump pickings for their friends in private companies who wish to take over successful public enterprises. They neglect the fact public ownership of utilities like transport was most often begun by Governments which were not ideologically of the left, including those in this State. They created those companies for the practical reason that private enterprise was unwilling or unable to do so because it did not believe essential public services could provide them with a profit.

On a basic level, the quality of life for ordinary people improved immensely when municipal and State authorities began to supply those services. That is why this State financed the building of local authority housing and established bodies such as the ESB, CIE, Bord na Móna, the sugar companies and Aer Lingus. The people who controlled the bulk of the wealth created in this State had no interest in long-term investment or in the development of State industry. Instead, they were happy to put their money into the London Stock Exchange. Now that those State enterprises have proved successful, we are faced with demands that they be privatised.

We have been here before with Irish Shipping. A Government made up of parties opposite decided that an island nation dependent on exports and imports could not run a shipping company. It did not need Irish Continental Lines and B&I. Where does that leave us today? In recent months, we saw another example of this kind of privatisation whereby employers have their ships registered under flags of convenience so they do not have to adhere to Irish or even EU labour laws. The workers on those ships work longer hours and get paid the princely sum of €1 per hour, as we saw only a few weeks ago. Is that what we want for Aer Lingus? If that happens, it will have all the effects described by my colleagues and it would also have implications for the provision of services.

What guarantees will there be that regional airports will be maintained if a private sector does not feel it is guaranteed sufficient returns? Not only would that affect tourism in areas dependent on airports, such as Counties Kerry, Mayo and Donegal, but it would also affect the local economy in other ways which would give rise to job losses. Kerry Airport at Farranfore is an example of a regional facility which provides excellent service to the county and the south west in general. It is an important access point for inward tourism but, more importantly, it is an amenity for local people who for personal or employment reasons are able to avail of the convenience of air travel in place of long, tedious road or rail journeys or, indeed, to connect from other airports.

I know the value of a regional airport as I use it continually coming to and from the House. It takes me approximately 40 minutes to get from Farranfore to Dublin Airport whereas it takes me over four hours to drive to Dublin. On a practical level, this means that a person flying from Farranfore can be in Manchester or London in an hour and a half. It could be pointed out that the London provider is a private company but I doubt very much if a private company could have built and maintained the airport. That is one of the points of this motion. The airport facilities need to be retained in State ownership and developed to provide what is overall a profitable enterprise but one where, like other public utilities, profit should not be the prime motivator.

Another issue which needs to be borne in mind when discussing the need to retain a State airline and overall authority in the sector is that private companies would have no interest in promoting an all-island approach to the provision of air travel. The overall long-term development of tourism and industry in a region like the north west requires co-operation on numerous levels, including transport, and that should be one of the factors taken into consideration in framing a strategy for the Irish aviation sector as a whole.

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