Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)

A private company now owns the telecommunications network for the State and can disconnect people's lines on the basis that they will only reconnect them if they sign up with Eircom for 12 months. They do not provide a better service for people in any way. In addition, broadband roll-out was knocked back for many years and we still have not recovered to this day.

People are dying in their homes due to freezing conditions brought about by poverty. If private companies get their hands on these industries, one can only imagine where poor people will end up. As can be seen from the Eircom fiasco, private companies are about the bottom line, not about investment, the provision of essential services or value for money. They are quite obviously not about providing the best services or about Ireland's interests, but their own.

Privatisation is not an EU-IMF initiative; this is a decision by the Minister and his Government colleagues. They are making it and cannot blame Fianna Fáil or the former Progressive Democrats. Following the budget, we have seen what this Government has done to health and other public services in his country. There has been a drive towards privatisation for the benefit of private enterprise.

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