Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

There is no fire sale of State assets and there will be no fire sale of State assets. There is no wholesale privatisation of State assets. The Government is taking a strategic approach to investment in the economy. We are doing that because I believe even Deputy McDonald will agree that there is a necessity and a priority to generate employment in the economy. We have a number of things going for us in this country. We have very good State companies, as the Deputy has said. We have the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, which has developed considerable expertise in the area of finance and of corporate governance. It makes sense to take what I call a whole portfolio approach to the State companies. That is the progressive approach that has been taken in a number of other countries. The investment strategy, the corporate governance strategy, the obtaining of finance and the entire State shareholding in the State companies are looked at as one. There is huge potential for investment in some areas of the economy, including communications, which the Deputy mentioned, energy and infrastructure such as water. In all those areas, there is a requirement for additional investment and potential for the generation of employment. It makes sense for the State to harness the resources it has available in order to invest in those areas of the economy and generate employment both directly in those areas and, through that investment, outside them. There are two arms to the strategic approach the Government takes. One is the total portfolio approach that is being taken to the State companies and the other is the establishment of a strategic investment fund that will use resources from the National Pensions Reserve Fund and leverage resources in the private sector in order to invest in the economy.

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