Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)

"The privatisation of Eircom in 1999 must rank as the biggest single economic mistake made by an Irish Government - until the disastrous blanket bank guarantee of September 2008", according to the Communications Workers Union. There have been six changes of ownership in Eircom since 1999 and handsome profits have been made each time, with the Valentia group making €1 billion. Eircom was the largest commercial company in Ireland before privatisation. It was a leader in technology, investing heavily and virtually debt free, a position occupied by the ESB today. Eircom was worth €8.4 billion at the time of its privatisation but this year it is worth just €4.6 billion and has huge debts, giving a net value of €3 billion. Employment has reduced from 14,000 to 7,000, a 50% drop. To restate the facts, Eircom was a successful public company, providing good jobs and investing in key areas of infrastructure, but it has lost over 50% of its value and 50% of its workforce, investment has collapsed and this has left the State a decade behind in the provision of fast broadband while huge profits have been made by the asset strippers.

The point of all of this is that the Eircom privatisation can never be described as a decision made in the national interest. It was an ideologically driven position, the self-same ideologically driven position that has led to the crisis of the world economy and the crisis in Ireland. The Government is now proposing more of the same in regard to this proposal. The Government will point out it is retaining the majority stake in ESB and not privatising it but simply selling a minority shareholding. I regard this as the thin end of the wedge. The proposal to sell €2 billion worth of State assets is criminal. Some €2 billion represents 50% of the €3.8 billion the Government is putting into the black hole of Anglo Irish Bank by July and will continue to do every year for the next ten years.

This is more than madness. It is what Deputy Eamon Gilmore when in Opposition called "economic treason" but it has now become "okay treason". It must be stopped. I fully support the workers if they decide to take strike action in this regard. I call on the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to co-ordinate a campaign to protect jobs, conditions and services in the public sector.

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