Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Yes but the point is that the authority to do this exists. I wish it did not. The Minister of State might argue that provision has been made for Irish Water to remain a public company. Some of us are dubious about that. We believe the Government has done that under public pressure. We are also dubious as to what extent this will remain the case or for that matter whether privatisation by stealth is already happening in that Irish Water can engage in outsourcing and so on. Setting aside all of those points, the point being made is that if the Minister who has the power to do so asks the NTMA to prepare the nuts and bolts of the sale of a State asset then he or she in making that call - which I wish he or she could not do - should at least be required to come before this House to debate the matter, during which time serious questions about the details of preparations for the project could be raised.

I refer to the proposed sale of the harvesting rights of Coillte. During the year and a half between when the Government was committed to that sell-off and its reversal of that decision, which I welcomed, one of the issues of concern was the value for money that might or might not be achieved in that regard. The figure bandied around in respect of the amount for which the harvesting rights would be sold was €600 million. That is the figure that was referred to by some Ministers. People who are more knowledgeable than I in the area of forestry pointed out that in the context of the cost of timber per acre and so on this amounted to a give-away of the harvesting rights. On foot of being informed of this by people who are more knowledgeable than I in this area I repeatedly tabled parliamentary questions on the matter, including at various stages to the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, but I came up against a blank wall. I was told that the information was commercially sensitive and to release it would jeopardise the negotiations, all of which was nonsense as far as I am concerned. Despite that what we were speaking of was the sale of a valuable State asset I could not get information about it.

This provision would ensure that if a Minister makes this call he or she, prior to the NTMA commencing development of the project, would have to engage in a discussion on that decision in this House. That is a reasonable and fairly minimal requirement to ensure transparency, oversight and so on of a decision regarding the disposal of the people's assets. These are vital assets owned by the people.

See this speech in context