Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)

I am not convinced selling State assets is a good idea, especially at the current time. The Government has assured us it will get value for money but it is obvious that getting a proper price for anything is practically impossible. The short-term benefit will be outweighed by any long-term damage. There are many reasons that a state should retain some control over its assets.

I was surprised to see how many State companies have been privatised. The current list stands at ten. It has been a problem in Ireland, England and Europe. Many public assets in Europe have been sold off, which has left countries far less capable of dealing with unemployment now that we are in a recession. I do not want to compare everything to China, but it was able to deal with the crisis. It was able to control its banks and tell them what to do in order to maintain funding. It had far more financial and industrial leverage to drive economic growth because it had such control over its state organisations.

It is a pity we do not have more control of ours. I understand that Government has signed up to a deal by whereby it is obliged to sell something. I do not think there is much economic logic to it. I would be suspicious that the aims of the troika are more neo-liberal than economic, given that we will not get much of a price for our assets.

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