Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

We want to achieve real and better competition in the energy market.

I refer to the notion that it is somehow a bad thing to get a good price for them and that we will get a good price for them because they are valuable assets. Of course, we want to get the best price because we need to pay down some of the State's debt. That is not a bad thing of itself, that is, to take some of the terrible burden of debt off the Irish taxpayer. We also want to get some access to money to invest in the productive economy. We have got a very good deal where one third of the total asset sales can be used for that purpose.

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