Deputy Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform ( Brendan Howlin:

My colleague, the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, has addressed energy policy and related issues associated with the Government's decision to sell a minority stake in the ESB. I will explain the broader policy context in which it has taken that decision.

Like my ministerial colleague, Deputy Rabbitte, I acknowledge the important role State agencies and the ESB, in particular, have played in the economic development of the country through the provision of key infrastructure such as energy and transport infrastructure and the commercialisation of resource-based industries, including agriculture. However, as we are aware, the country is in a desperate fiscal position, notwithstanding the fact that the public finances have stabilised. We are dependent on the financial assistance provided under the EU-IMF programme for the continued day-to-day operation of the State. That is an inescapable fact; one cannot wish it away. The overwhelming public need is to bring sustainability to the public finances and foster economic growth. That is what we are about.

The point has been made by Deputies opposite that the sale of State assets is not a traditional policy of the Labour Party and it is one I accept. In normal times we would probably not be proposing the sale of State assets, but these are not normal times. The Labour Party remains a key advocate of State involvement in the economy. For example, the programme for Government contains a commitment to the establishment of a public water company. The case for State involvement in areas of market failure remains as strong as ever. We could have had a more speedy and successful broadband roll-out in the initial stages had it been State driven, but the whole purpose of State supported economic activity is to support national development and it is entirely appropriate that the fate of any State company is subservient to this overall national goal. To suggest anything else amounts to ideological blindness.

To put the matter in context, this year the gap between the revenues and spending of the Exchequer will be of the order of €15 billion, excluding the costs associated with repairing the banking system.

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