Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the Minister's acceptance of the tenor of Sinn Féin's motion with regard to the contribution the ESB has made to the State since its inception in 1927. The company is self-financing, has paid €4.3 billion to the State in taxes and dividends over the past ten years and is an international leader in the energy sector. That it can borrow substantial amounts on the markets to fund re-investment in the company makes it more difficult to understand the reason any Government would sell off in part or whole a stake in one of the State's success stories, particularly in light of its own failure to re-enter the money markets.

Another Labour Party Minister, Deputy Joan Burton, acknowledged as much last year in an interview with Business and Finance in which she stated: "It seems to me an extraordinary proposition at a time when Ireland is doing so badly in terms of bond spreads that we would seriously want to sell into a depressed market State assets which themselves have a fund-raising capacity in terms of their own needs." The Minister singled out the ESB and Bord Gáis for particular mention as having independent funding capacities through the bond markets and noted: "Given the difficulties that we are in at the moment with our bond spreads, it seems to me to be unwise to remove this strategic capacity". Such a move was unwise then and is unwise now.

Major questions need to be asked about this quick buck approach to selling a stake in the ESB. Despite reporting a pre-tax loss of €89 million, the company committed to paying a dividend of €77 million to the Exchequer for 2010. Its pre-tax figures were impacted by the resolution of its pension deficit and higher interest rates on its debt. However, despite the loss, the ESB still paid out its dividend to the State. Does the Government believe that such dividends will be paid out without question in the event of a part privatisation? Does the Labour party believe the raison d'être of a private third party will be to ensure the public purse receives its fair share? Does it believe a private company beholden to shareholders will buy a sizeable chunk in a successful company to sustain fair wages, keep jobs in Ireland and lower consumer prices and choose to re-invest moneys in improved strategic infrastructure over paying out dividends to shareholders? The Minister does not believe any of those propositions, nor do I.

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