Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an díospóireacht seo ar mhaoin an Stáit. Mar a dúirt an cainteoir a chuaigh romham, tá sé iontach tábhachtach go bhfuil muid ag plé seo agus muid ag plé leis an reifreann. Beidh muid ag scansáil ar feadh cúpla seachtain agus b'fhéidir cúpla mí amach anseo.

It is said that a week is a long time in politics. If that is the case, a year must seem like a lifetime. It was certainly long enough for the parties now in Government to abandon wholesale the policies they held for decades while in Opposition. Nowhere is that truer than in the Labour Party's abandonment of the semi-State sector. We have heard Labour Party Ministers and Deputies claim that the proposals announced by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform are reasonable and in the best interest of the State. We have also heard them try to sweeten the blow with promises of investment in job creation.

Let us remind ourselves what that party used to represent before it took office. In 2011 the Labour Party election manifesto told prospective voters:

Labour is committed to concept of public enterprise, and is determined to ensure that semi-state companies play a full role in the recovery of the Irish economy. Labour is opposed to short-termist privatisation of key state assets, such as Coillte or the energy networks.

The 2007 Labour Party manifesto outlined proposals for the mobilisation of ESB and Coillte in the service of economic development and environmental sustainability. Now we see two Labour Party Ministers, Deputies Howlin and Rabbitte, abandoning more than a decade of principled support for the semi-State sector. What is worse is that they are doing the grubby bidding for their Fine Gael masters in Government, who were never supportive of the semi-State sector and wanted to privatise profitable State assets irrespective of the long-term losses to the State and citizens.

Thankfully, not everyone in the Labour Party is happy with these decisions. Angry voters and elected representatives across the country do not understand why this is happening. Doubtless they are being told the decision is being foisted on the Government by the troika. We all know this is not true but why let it get in the way of justifying the abandonment of core party principles?

This anger was clearly expressed by Labour Party member and general secretary of SIPTU, Jack O'Connor, last week, when he stated: "Today's announcement regarding the sale of some public enterprises is a sad day for the Irish people and a tragedy for the Labour Party". Another prominent member of the Labour Party, President Higgins, told the London School of Economics that privatisation "is the road back to autocracy, in which a hollowed-out state is bereft of anything meaningful to attract the support of the citizen". It must reassure the Tánaiste that not every member of his party dispensed with the policies he put to the people in the general election 12 months ago.

It makes no economic, strategic or social sense to sell these State assets. It will result in financial losses to the State and the taxpayer in dividends foregone over the long term. There will be a diminution of influence and, in the case of Aer Lingus, the loss of a seat at the table when decisions of strategic importance are taken. It will increase regional and social inequality of access to vital public services.

If this Government was serious about job creation it would invest the billions of euro that remain in the National Pensions Reserve Fund rather than sell off profitable State assets at some point in the future. Even as it sells off these profitable State assets, it is spending billions of euro in taxpayers' money on the acquisition of new assets in the form of bank bailouts. It has budgeted €1.3 billion this year to purchase the life insurance component of Irish Life & Permanent, on top of the €3.1 billion it intends to inject into Anglo Irish Bank on 31 March and the €21.3 billion it gave to the banks in 2011. Perhaps the Labour Party is committed to investing in State assets after all, provided those assets are banks in need of bailout after bailout.

I have no doubt that a return to core Labour Party principles is out of the question for the Ministers, Deputies Howlin and Rabbitte, but I urge backbenchers to heed the words of Jack O'Connor and President Higgins by supporting Sinn Féin's motion defending State assets.

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