Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

There will be no question of selling off the family silver. From the beginning, we have said that we negotiated a programme for Government with Fine Gael. I am responding to questions here as a Member of the Government, not as a Labour Party member. The Labour Party makes up one third of the Government and we negotiated a programme for Government which includes a sale of State assets and that programme was overwhelmingly approved by the Labour Party conference and by Fine Gael through its validation process. That is the agreement we will work towards.

The view of members of my party comes as no surprise to me. I have a firm attachment to State assets and a firm appreciation of the role State companies have played in the generating of our economy. We will continue to ensure that the State sector plays a vital part in the generation of new jobs. It is for that reason the biggest State company of recent times was announced last week by the Government.

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