Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

An employee share ownership plan, ESOP, does not imply there must be full privatisation. The Ceann Comhairle has kindly facilitated a discussion of Aer Lingus during tonight's Adjournment debate. It was a characteristic of that company's ESOP development that the workers responded to it by working in an increasingly more efficient way until their company was in a position to rival the competitive leader in the short-haul market. We had the best of all possible worlds as a result of this effective competition between a competitive private enterprise company and a highly motivated State company. It does not follow in any way that the development of an ESOP will mean we are committed to a route of privatisation. Moreover, the workers in Bord Gáis Éireann would be bitterly opposed to us taking that route.

Reference was made to the United States, a country with a complex economy. A discovery I made many years ago when I studied economics was that the United States is characterised by a high level of worker owned enterprises. Many people do not realise that the most competitive economy in the world is also characterised by high levels of worker ownership. I support the point made by my Green Party colleague, Deputy Eamon Ryan, that consideration should be given to developing worker ownership across the public sector wherever there is scope to do so. I would go further by saying that this approach should be taken right across the economy by, for example, encouraging large private enterprises that are capitalised in the stock market to develop a similar type of ESOP structure. My party supports the view that employee ownership often promotes a high degree of worker motivation.

As the Minister said, there is a long history to current discussions regarding Bord Gáis Éireann. There is a commitment from the trade unions to engage in dialogue. It is important to note that many of those who work for Bord Gáis Éireann do so as contractors and often work under difficult conditions. I met some of them recently, many of them immigrant workers working at pace to lay the new network for which the CER has allowed Bord Gáis Éireann levy such high tariffs. Many Bord Gáis Éireann workers do not work directly for the company and will have no chance to become involved in the ESOP.

In general, the idea of a workers' shareholding in return for transformation is positive. The bottom line is that Eircom, as I understand it, is one third owned by its workers. It is amazing that a company in our type of economy should have such high worker involvement. However, Members on all sides of this House believe the Minister's predecessors made a grave mistake in selling the networks.

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