Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)

When the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, announced in a reply to me last week that the Government had been obliged to make a decision to sell an as yet unknown stake in the ESB, I had no doubt he was genuine in stating that this was not something he would have chosen to do. I am certain that is the case. I am also certain that there are many of his colleagues for whom this is an extremely painful and embarrassing departure from the principles on which the Labour Party claims to stand. The Minister has said - it will be repeated many times during this debate - that the Government has no choice in the matter. We will be told that this sale and the sale of other State assets is necessary in order to pay off some of the massive debt taken up as a consequence of the bank bailout and the virtual surrender of economic sovereignty to the European Union and the IMF. It is correct to say there is no choice in that context. That is why my party and others are opposed to what is happening and why we are arguing that the State should pull out of the EU-IMF programme before we are forced further down the road of debt slavery, austerity and the destruction of vast areas of public and social provision.

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