Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

I will speak until 8.05 pm, if that is all right with the Acting Chairman.

We need only look at ST Technics, previously Team Aer Lingus. Where is it now? The same applies to B & I, Eircom, Siúcra Éireann and Irish Steel, which was sold for £1. We should have these companies in State ownership now and with them we would have been able to resurrect the economy, protect jobs and help plan for the future of Ireland. They are not there, however, and we have no control over them. Some of them have gone in total - it is not only that the jobs are gone but the actual companies have disappeared, in some cases because of the property bubble.

Free market competitors can be savage and merciless in their actions. We must defend and hold what we have in terms of strategic assets. Anybody who recklessly disposes of our strategic infrastructure is acting treacherously and against the interests of the Irish people, North and South.

In terms of energy, Bord na Móna, Bord Gáis and the ESB are profitable and are also of undeniable strategic importance. Even a partial sale would be the first step towards full privatisation - that is the way it has happened in the past. In many instances, the privatisation of critical infrastructure, in Ireland and abroad, has been an unmitigated disaster for the public. In Britain, for example, the Royal Mail had to be bought back by the state such was the scale of the disaster and the experience of that privatisation. The privatisation of British Rail also came at enormous cost and because it was done so poorly, in some cases, it literally cost lives. There was no proper consequent maintenance of the railway lines. Companies came in to asset strip, not to invest. The same is true of what happened in Eircom. There was no investment, only continuous asset stripping.

These were assets which were formerly Irish-owned and for which we never obtained full value. We will not obtain full value for anything sold in the current climate.

Critical infrastructure, when in public hands, can be deployed strategically in order to grow the economy. Owing to the fact that under a public owner, profit is not necessarily the bottom line, it can also be used to serve a diversity of public interests. As Sinn Féin's spokesperson on social protection, I actively opposed the Government's recent decision to cut pensioners' fuel and energy allowances. It made a decision to achieve savings by cutting fuel allowances under the household benefits package rather than by securing a bulk purchaser discount from energy providers. In many cases, the latter are State energy providers, which makes what is happening even more ridiculous. We must start insisting that our public services serve the public. We need to cut waste and the outrageous pay and conditions at the top in both public and private companies. We must also extract the very best for the public. The assets to which I refer are only non-strategic if, as is the case with the Government, there is a failure to use them strategically. It is not good enough to sit back and do nothing.

Caithfimid smacht a fháil arís ar na modhanna tairgeadh. B'fhéidir go dtuigeann Pairtí an Lucht Oibre é sin mar sin a dúirt Marx agus Engels. Muna bhfuil smacht againn ar na modhanna tairgeadh tá sé an-dheacair smacht a bheith againn ar an eacnamaíocht. Ceacht é sin a tugadh dúinn tamall de bhlianta ó shin ach ceacht atá fíor sa lá atá inniu ann. Muna bhfuil an smacht sin againn beidh cumhacht ag fórsaí seachtracha ar an náisiún seo, agus ar an eacnamaíocht ach go háirithe. Cheana féin, tá cumhacht agus smacht ag na fórsaí sin ar chúrsaí airgeadais agus ar a lán eile. Caithfimid a bheith cinnte de nach mbeidh smacht acu ar a leithéidí Bhord Soláthair an Leictreachais nó ar aon cheann des na comhlachtaí móra Stáit atá ag teastáil uainn chun déanamh cinnte de go bhfuilimid in ann ath-thógaint a dhéanamh ar eacnamaíochta na tíre.

Caithfimid díriú isteach ar rudaí atá tábhachtach seachas ar na pinginí beaga a bhéadh á fháil againn. Caithfimid cuimhneamh gur minic nach bhfuil pinginí chomh tábhachtach is atá postanna nó an féin mheas a fhaigheann daoine as sin, gan trácht ar an mbuntáiste a fhaigheann an Stát go leanúnach as a leithéidí Bhord Soláthair an Leictreachais. Ní díbhinn airgeadais amháin a shaothraíonn sé ach díbhinn ó thaobh postanna agus cúrsaí sóisialta.

Molaim an rún agus tá súil agam go dtiocfaidh athrú poirt ar Phairtí an Lucht Oibre sa chás seo.

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