Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)

No one is under any illusion. Regardless of our political perspective, we all accept that at this moment the numbers do not add up. The State is not taking in enough to pay its way, much less pay the debt it has completely and illogically taken on at the behest of the European banking system. We are now borrowing at high rates and most of that money is doing little or nothing to change the situation. Government policy is simply deflating the economy and taking money out of the pockets of struggling people who spend every penny of their income in the local economy.

With this in mind, we accept that revenue must be generated and new sources of funding tapped. What we completely and utterly reject is the short-sighted, ideologically driven strategy of selling off the family silver, represented by bodies such as the ESB, CIE and Aer Lingus. A move such as this flies in the face of a strategy to encourage growth and job creation. These are bodies and companies that offer essential services to the people, the State and their mutual interests. They are not inherently wasteful, inefficient or poor quality service providers.

It is certain that savings could be made by many of these bodies, which are almost wholly under State control. One possible step, which I ask Ministers to consider as an option for themselves also, is to cut the wages of the top earners in these bodies and establish measures to ensure the obscene pensions that have been awarded to such people are consigned to history. This might not yield the billions required, but it would certainly be a gesture to indicate the Government is serious about getting value for money. There are choices. Blind belief in the market or the orders of the troika is not good enough.

Until recently, the Labour Party was opposed to the current Government direction of privatising State enterprises for short-term superficial gain. It was right to take this position. It was right in believing that it was the responsibility of the State to provide many of these services to citizens and that breaking up these companies would not be beneficial to anyone other than narrow private interests. Unfortunately, the Labour Party seems to have, in deed if not in word, become completely subservient to the senior Government party. I ask Labour Party backbenchers to think about their core constituency, the ordinary working families who depend on these services. They should consider how these families will be affected by privatisation and how little this policy will really do to ease their weekly struggle to make ends meet. It is all the more worrying that these plans, cooked up by Fine Gael in its NewERA programme and accepted by the Labour Party in the programme for Government, are following almost to the letter the recommendations of Mr. Colm McCarthy. This is the man who drew up the plan to destroy the entire State, devastate communities and treat tens of thousands of people as if they were simply numbers in an accountancy exercise. He did all this for a rather tidy sum, given the useless product of his questionable effort.

One of the companies in which the State is considering selling its stake is Aer Lingus. This company saw large State investment of time, work and money in order to ensure its commercial viability into this century. It has been allowed to slip partly into the hands of Ryanair which is set on creating a monopoly situation in Irish air travel. If the remaining shares in State control are sold, Aer Lingus is as good as finished and a brand which has always been looked on positively throughout the world as our national carrier will become another low fare airline. Merging of services will cause job losses and, most likely, protracted industrial action. One would think Aer Lingus was failing. The Government would have us believe that Aer Lingus is costing us great amounts of money but this is simply not true. According to the airline's spokespeople, last month was a continuation of the "positive trend" in the company's figures and August saw profits before tax rise 124% on the previous year's figures. Short-sightedness must be becoming contagious because it is rampant across this Chamber.

The Government also seeks to sell off part of the ESB. Given the experience of struggling families in recent years in regard to disconnections and inability to keep up with bills, how can the Government fail to see this is a recipe for disaster? The private industry has no potential for tolerating the difficulties faced by people in this economic basketcase. People and representatives had to fight to end the practice of shutting electricity off from those people who fell behind on their bills. If the ESB is lost to private hands, disconnections will be a massive problem and we will once again face the real possibility of people being without power and heat in their homes. Neither the electorate nor any person who is honest with himself or herself would say that in this day and age electricity should be a luxury. This move has the potential to create that situation, which is very worrying. The policy also disregards the fact that the ESB is self-financing and has been a good thing for the people both socially and economically since its foundation.

The ESB, Aer Lingus and other bodies are not millstones around the necks of the people but are very real assets. If they were not, who would be willing to buy them? The Government must abandon this grubby plan of privatisation. Its conviction that the market should rule all failed us in the past 15 years. The people learned that but obviously the political class has not. If Fine Gael succeeds in this plan, it will bring more hardship, worse service and job losses to this State as well as decreases its year-on-year revenue intake. It is blatantly wrong and I ask all Members to support this opposing motion.

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