Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We thrashed out the principle of this on Second Stage. I do not want to be obliged to willingly dispose of State assets and certainly not before each individual asset is subjected to scrutiny. In the context of any broad disposal of State assets, I would rather we were not in this position. However, on Second Stage I explained at some length why we find ourselves at this current pass. Senator Ó Clochartaigh and his colleagues in the Lower House have the luxury of telling me what they are against, but they never inform me as to what they are for. If I agreed that we should not dispose of the energy business of Bord Gáis Éireann, would Sinn Féin outline for me how I might meet the requirements set down by the troika? What should I sell? It does not make any sense for the Senator to indicate that he opposes the sale of a profitable State company. Does he believe anybody would be interested in buying unprofitable State companies or that we would obtain good prices for such entities?

In the context of where we started in respect of this matter - namely, with a requirement placed on us to come up with a figure of €5 billion through the sale of State assets, to be put towards writing down our debt - we eventually settled on a figure of up to €3 billion. We negotiated a facility to the effect that 50% of the proceeds from the sale would be used for productive reinvestment purposes, job creation and so on. This represents tremendous progress in the context of where we were previously. I look forward with considerable excitement to whoever purchases the energy part of Bord Gáis Éireann's business becoming a serious player in the energy market. I am of the view that said market needs as much competition as possible. We learned a lesson from the mistake made in respect of the global privatisation of Telecom Éireann some years ago. As a result, we are retaining in public ownership the networks and distribution business of Bord Gáis Éireann. That is the significant aspect. If a company purchases the energy division of Bord Gáis, there is every prospect that it will create additional employment and increase market share. Such a company will not be coming into this country to lose market share. We need as much competition in the marketplace as possible.

I am obliged to deal with the real world as it confronts me. Compared to some of the alternatives for realising proceeds from the sale of State assets, the decision being made in this regard could be very good for the country, for consumers and for what, I hope, will be a growing workforce within the company.