Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

If the Acting Chairman does not mind, I can pass it on.

I take the opportunity to congratulate my constituency colleagues, an tAire nua, Deputy Rabbitte. I wish him all the best in the new job. There is a shadow hanging over this Bill based on what we know from Government statements and the programme for Government of the plan to sell off non-strategic assets. The big question is whether An Post is a strategic or a non-strategic asset. The reply to that question will impact on the Bill's proposals supposedly to copper-fasten postal services.

Deputy Martin Ferris spoke about the strategic role An Post has in society, particularly in rural areas. He spoke about the importance of the postman or postwoman calling on someone's house occasionally being the difference between life and death situations. In some cases the first person to find out that a person has died is the postman discovering that the letters have not been collected, which alerts them to the problem in that household.

In this electronic era, An Post has a key role in postal delivery for personal and business purposes. In my constituency there has been concern over unread X-rays and the role of doctors sending their letters to the consultants at the hospital. Patients going to the hospital are normally given notification and those depending on the letter will sometimes get a text message, etc. The same applies to basic things like bank statements and so on. A number of years ago there was a strike which caused a crisis not only in people's personal lives, but also in the commercial life of the country. I know of a number of firms that hired private couriers to deliver letters and invoices. The postal service plays a key role and is one that many of us take for granted.

The key aspect of this Bill is the liberalisation of the market and introducing so-called competition. Deputy Martin Ferris spoke about the so-called liberalisation of energy and the effect it had, which was not positive for consumers. They are the ones who are paying for this nonsense of so-called liberalisation. I often wonder if the drafters of this European regulation are the same ones who wanted the straight bananas. The object of this Bill is supposedly to liberalise the postal service. In effect, its claims to protect the universal service obligation is not worth the paper upon which it is written, nor is the claim that the EU directive will protect it for ever. If we need proof of that, we need only look at what is happening in Britain.

When similar legislation to give effect to the EU directive was published, assurances were given that six day delivery and collection would be copperfastened and now as the Government there is preparing to privatise Royal Mail it has emerged that the provision of services will all be dependent on profit margins. That will mean if a postal company can prove that it is losing money it will be able to downgrade its services and only operate profitable ones.

The defenders of the Bill claim that the universal service obligation is copperfastened. If one reads the Bill, one will find that it makes clear that it will be reviewed by ComReg before the seven year period under which An Post is designated. It is being sold to unions and workers on the basis that it will copperfasten the universal service obligation and their jobs. The same section also provides for the designation of companies other than An Post as a universal provider but, more importantly, contains a clause under which the obligation can be removed altogether.

There are currently no plans to privatise An Post as a whole, we are told, but this Bill and the whole tenor of EU liberalisation of postal and other public services will inevitably lead not only to the breaking up of An Post and postal services but the cherry picking and selling off of its most profitable parts. That is what has happened in other countries and there is no reason it will not happen here.

My fear is that privatisation of State assets will be part of the IMF EU bailout for the banks. The review group on State assets, chaired by Mr. Colm McCarthy, has already made clear its support for privatisation. Its report is due to be presented soon. It will be interesting to see what he recommends and how the Government will respond to the recommendations. The key question on this Bill is whether the postal service is a key asset and whether it will be sold off.

It will be interesting to see what the report has to say about Coillte and other successful State companies which are prime targets for the privateers, especially those with an inside track who have clearly been eyeing up the juicy bits of the companies long before most of us were even aware that the sale of State assets was coming down the tracks. The former Minister for Finance, Deputy Lenihan, and his successor, the Minister, Deputy Noonan, have said in replies to questions on the report that they will be guided in their decision on any sale by its recommendations.

It is clear that the privatisation of State assets has been discussed as part of the bank bailout. The Government is on the record as saying it will do it and it has already discussed it with EU and IMF officials. The former Minister, Deputy Lenihan, when asked about this before the election stated that the Government will consult the Commission on the results of the assessment with a view to setting appropriate targets for possible privatisation of State assets. It appears that the new Government is following the same track and there is no real change. There may be slight changes in presentation but the reality is that it is committed to selling off many State assets.

The IMF and EU will no doubt take a hands-on approach to this matter. It is also a reality that the current Government has accepted all of the parameters of the terms of the bailout as laid down in the memorandum of understanding signed by its predecessors. In the current climate I would like to see much harder guarantees that An Post will not be asset stripped, that the people of this State will not be left with a poorer and more expensive service and that rural communities will not be left in a situation where postal collection and deliveries do not take place six days a week.

If such guarantees are not built into this Bill by way of amendment then Sinn Féin will vote against it. We will do so to protect the jobs of postal workers and the excellent service which An Post currently provides throughout this State. We will also oppose the Bill because we do not believe profitable public companies which have been built up over generations should be stripped down, torn apart and sold off to private profiteers.

We do not support selling off any State company to comply with the terms of an IMF EU bailout for bankers and speculators, some of whom, no doubt, will join the former Taoiseach Mr. Bertie Ahern in companies ready to move in for the kill if and when they are sold off. It is clear that this Bill, as it stands, does not serve to protect our postal services. It is also clear that it lays the basis to break up An Post and to sell off profitable parts of the company to private companies. Unless this Bill is radically amended to guard against this we will vote against it.

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