Dáil debates
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
ESB and Disposal of State Assets: Motion (Resumed)
8:00 pm
Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
That is a little reminder to the Deputies opposite to have some humility if they are advancing that type of ideology.
In terms of where we are here, we have a 25% share in a profitable, performing, critically and strategically important State industry being offered up for privatisation. I would remind the Fine Gael Deputies about some matters. They will remember the speeches they made about colocation and how concerned they were about cherrypicking. When a key public service is part-privatised, and I agree with Deputy Ross on this, those who come in to privatise it cherrypick and go after the most profitable elements of that service and the rest is left; eventually the service gets worse and the public is left to carry the can in terms of the critical non-profitable areas. That is what the Government has unleashed here.
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