Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)

The Labour Party should be ashamed of itself for contemplating a sale or part sale of State assets. To sell such assets would be a wanton and criminal act. The view of people on the street is that our assets are not the Government's to sell. The feedback the United Left Alliance is receiving is that people are angry that the Labour Party is even contemplating the part sale of State assets.

Selling off State assets to pay off banking debts is not acceptable. It is a national scandal to propose selling off part of the public companies which have been built up over many decades. Their sale would amount to a waste of money as the proceeds would be largely used to pay off the gambling debts of those who gambled in the economy. Even if €1 billion or one third of the expected proceeds was invested in job creation initiatives, it would be a drop in the ocean in tackling the problem of there being 450,000 people on the dole.

The proposed sale of State assets marks the beginning of loosening State control of key infrastructure which is essential to the economic development of the country. Did we not learn lessons from the sale of Telecom Éireann which later became Eircom? The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, stated the proceeds from the proposed privatisation would be used to deliver broadband services nationwide. If Eircom was in State hands, the Government could take a strategic decision to use public infrastructure to roll out broadband nationwide. This is no longer possible, however, because of the madness of a Fianna Fáil-led Government which decided to sell our telecommunications infrastructure.

Key industries should be used for the purposes of national public job investment. Private owners are interested only in investments that make profits rather than balanced development across the country. We will potentially lose control of where development takes place.

On the decision to sell trees to logging companies, what is preventing us from establishing a State-run timber processing industry using timber from Coillte lands? The vast majority of timber is imported. Rather than developing this indigenous industry, our timber resources will be given to outside industries and used to generate profits for their shareholders. These resources should be used to help to tackle mass unemployment.

The United Left Alliance has consistently argued that money is available and has submitted its economic proposals to the Government. A tax on wealth and the assets of the super-rich could generate revenue of almost €10 billion, while an increase in tax rates for high earners could potentially generate additional income of €5 billion per annum. This income could be used to invest in job creation. In the past the Labour Party would have advocated job creation measures based on this type of investment. Instead, it is turning its head and disgracefully playing a role in the sale of State assets.

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