Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The Minister would be better off working with the ESB, which paid €1.2 billion to the State in dividends over the past several years.

I accept that over the economic cycle State companies will be established, grow to maturity and be sold off or remain in State ownership for generations. My party has been involved in establishing a considerable number of semi-State companies over the years, as well as selling off some of them when it was appropriate to do to. It is a question of looking after the interests of the Irish people. In respect of strategic generation power plants, however, control must be maintained anywhere a hydroelectric generating station can control water levels, as is the case at Ardnacrusha, the Inniscarra dam on the River Lee and Turlough Hill. I welcome that the Minister appears to agree with me because I would not like the private sector to be able to decide the water levels on the River Shannon or the River Lee. From that point of view, strategic importance is based on more than the ability to generate electricity.

Problems also arise when there are too many private companies operating in the market. Approximately 300 different price packages are available in England but nobody can be sure they offer value for money. Furthermore, the questions of customers who must deal with difficult accounts and what happens to the staff of these companies have not been addressed sufficiently.

I acknowledge that the Government is not selling the freehold title to Coillte land but we need further details on the arrangement. The Minister told us that he cannot share commercially sensitive information but he expects to sign a blank cheque. We cannot agree to the proposal until we get adequate information. The Government proposes to sell the right to harvest the forests. In effect it will hand over these trees and the land on which they are growing for 30 years until the crop is mature. During that period the public will have no right to access the land because it will be a private sector work site. The health and safety rules will be quoted and the land will be treated as private property for 30 years. We will not even be able to exploit it for its tourism potential.

The question of carbon credits for forestry and power generation has not been addressed sufficiently. Will the purchasers be given carbon credits with the assets in order that they sell them at a profit without producing a megawatt of electricity? The Minister cannot expect us to provide a worked out response without this information.

If the Government does not intend to use all the proceeds from the sale of these State assets for job creation, investment and growth of the economy, it should not sell them.

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