Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)

It is an absolute fallacy, repeated made by the larger party in government in particular.

In reality, the State is a key employee of more than 300,000 people in the public sector and 45,000 in semi-State bodies. It is a vital cog in job creation. There is no such thing as a non-strategic State asset in my opinion. All of these companies have historically played and at present play a vital role in our economic development in terms of providing relatively secure decent permanent employment, quality products and services, and regional development. In the company where I worked, Aer Lingus, we made the point that the taxation revenue from the workforce alone was greater than all of the tax generated from the farming community, and the role of this community is never disputed. The idea of selling a portion of these companies to raise funds to perhaps create jobs as the Minister stated is absolute nonsense.

In the first case, the Minister admitted his masters have not even given him permission to do this and to use the money to do so. Even if they had, it would be ridiculous because to use money to create jobs by a mechanism which inevitably leads to job losses, which privatisation always does - and one may change the label but selling a stake in State assets is privatisation - would be absolute lunacy. We very much reject the Àla carte menu offered to us by the Minister of what type of privatisation we would like to see in the ESB, whether to sell off parts of it or a percentage of the whole. We reject any of these options. What the Minister is peddling is upside down economics. He should be investing in these companies as a key driver of economic growth and recovery.

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