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The Daily PollTHE CABINET IS meeting today on the Dáil’s first day back in session. One of the priority items on the agenda for the Cabinet is whether it will sell off one or more State assets to raise €2bn.
Last week, Transport Minister Leo Varadker indicated that the State might sell off its share in Aer Lingus. There is speculation in today’s Irish Independent that the ESB could come under the hammer.
Today we are asking you: Which major State asset do YOU think should be sold off first?
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They are not the State’s to sell – they belong to the people of Ireland who have paid for them with their taxes.
Nonsense. The State created most of these organisations like the National Lottery and RTÉ. They can do what they like with them including selling them.
We haven’t paid for them with taxes. Taxes only cover 2/3 of spending these days. The other 1/3 is borrowed. We get a sweet deal for our taxes these days, contrary to what people might otherwise believe.
Considering the National Lottery actually makes money, selling that off is just plain short-sighted!
No one would buy these assets if they didn’t make money, that’s the point. It’s to raise money now and forgo the future profits.
Because distressed companies are never bought on the cheap as “fixer-uppers”
L’État, c’est nous.
@David – By your logic we should pay taxes and have no say in how they are spent. That sounds a bit undemocratic to me. Also, you seem to be misguided in thinking that these assets have been created in the last few years when tax take covers 2/3 of spend. These assets have been built up since the foundation of the State e.g. ESB ArdnaCrusha scheme, national grid etc. I for one don’t see the value of handing essential publc services like electricity or water to private companies who are in existence to make a profit with inevitable price hikes.
We just had an election. Parties outright opposed to selling assets took a small fraction of the votes. People knew this was coming down the line but voted for parties supporting it nonetheless. It’s not undemocratic. You can’t have it the other way letting people vote on every little government decision. Nothing would ever get done then.
David – I would agree that not every decision should be put to the people and never suggested it should be. True too that we just had an election. I don’t think too many were giving a mandate for privatisation. In fact, FG and Labour told everyone that they would be undoing the FF deal altogether. However, the government’s broken promises are building up day by day and that is a whole other debate. Staying on topic I still don’t think that basic human rights like electricity, water etc should become something solely for those that can afford it.
David, can you send me a link or even a pic of an election campaign where this clown coalition stated their intention to sell this country and it’s assets to the highest bidder?, probably not.
You see David, people voted this particular bunch of fools into office because they were not Fianna fail, that is fact
Rubbish. Let’s get rid of all the wooly-jumpered liberals over at RTE first, These “broadcasters” are cosseted from the real world. Paying these marble-mouthed D4 idiots 100 of thousands to talk horse **** on radio/TV/internet is a national disgrace.
Good chance to trim the excessive fat. And get some hard cash in the process.
So David stuff belongs to an abstract ‘state’ and not the people. Fancy expanding on that as im not sure what that actually means
Right now and for a long time to come they belong to the European Bank & IMF, that is why they are up for discussion as to what should be sold off.
It was obviously part of the bail out, Ireland gets what it needs to survive and pay the pensions, bills and keep things ticking over, and in turn it sells off its assets to help pay off its debt.
The Irish people already no longer own these assets, I’m afraid.
They are State assets; therefore the State can sell them.
Secondly, all the main parties campaigned on the basis of largely implementing the agreement with the Troika – which included the selling of some State assets. The people voted; let the Government get on with it.
The problem with the hard left is that they just can’t take the fact that the very large majority deeply disagree with them.
I think the State should sell off Dail Eireann and buy themselvs a community hall to hold their useless meetings.
wow thanks for the inspirational comment you are a true patriot to our republic
Sell off RTE and all the wonderful “Talent” it contains.
any of these companies sold will be asset stripped with the profits going overseas, just like eircom. Those companies should be pared down and run like proper businesses creating a decent profit for the govt.
Is RTE not more of a state liability?
The Dail Bar!
We should kick SHELL out, nationalise OUR NATURAL RESOURCES all 1.2 trillion dollars worth and thereafter sell NONE of the above mentioned assets as we’d no longer need to do so… Screw Shell and europe for that matter, with those resources about our coast, they will come a begging… Amazing that we don’t have one politician pushing this agenda… I WONDER WHY?????? no brown envelopes in it perhaps
“Amazing that we don’t have one politician pushing this agenda… I WONDER WHY??????
Because there’s no election coming maybe and i’d say shell are all out of brown envelopes at this stage
The reason why no politicians are pursuing this “agenda” is because it is based on ignorance of basic economics.
So true Giovanni, 99% of this current government* spent their political careers sitting in opposition making the odd noise here and there to show their constituents they are actually at work.
* – denotes the term government which should not be used so liberally when referring to the current crop of imbeciles residing in Dáil Eireann as they have no idea of governance.
wow what a complex anaylsis of the use of our natural recourses, insinuate a conspiracy and use CAPS selectively thank you. First Question where are we going to get the money to pay for the infrastructure and exspertise needed to extract natural gas and transport it? Considering all new roads are public private partnerships, I’d dare say we’d need some private companies to do it for us.
Will the money raised go towards generating jobs, improving hospital’s, Education in Ireland? No it will go to pay off the loan sharks in Europe or at least pay off the generous ‘bail out’ of our European ‘partners’
Why would we want to dispose of Irish assits to pay them off?
Sell Leinster House by all means. Would be even willing to through in the bunch of useless feckers who’s only value is warming the seats in the Dail when they bother to turn up that is.
Welcome to national assit stripping folks…….
Realistically, what is Leinster House worth as a building?
Who would want it?
WHat could it be used for? A hotel? Don’t think so, more than enough hotels in Dublin right now, I would have thought.
Reducing the running costs of Leinster Hse is something else, by perhaps reducing the number of TDs by 50% is something else and maybe even moving some other government body into the empty office space that would create?
Sell off Tubridy , Kenny, Duffy, etc.. We would easily get a tenner each for them.
Don’t be daft. I wouldn’t pay a tenner for Tubridy!! At least he’s gone to RTE 2 and I don’t listen to that.
RTE has to go. I could be totally wrong but it can’t be profitable at this stage. The RTE Guide is surely another non-runner financially, with print prices now, it has to be making a loss!
Countries need to have their own state controlled TV stations for national security.
Can you expand on the logic of that national security thing?
RTE guide is very proftable afaik, but I agreee — RTE needs to be sold off and made to stand on its own feet. Licence fee could be used to make public service type programmes for sale to all the channels.
National security? It didn’t hurt the USA to have the Emergency Broadcasting System on the PRIVATE cable networks of America. You don’t need RTE for that. Anyway we might be overrun by terrerists, earthquakes and tornadoes before RTE break into an advert to let us know…
If RTE is sold do we not have to pay a TV Licence? Because it’s mostly used to fund RTE right? Or will our TV licence be reduced?
Just curious!
Dear moderator. Your colours in the chart are not good for colour blind people.
Hi Conor. The poll service we use unfortunately graduates into these shades once we pick more than a handful of options. We generally try not to give too many options because we agree that it’s none too attractive! But in the case of this poll, there was no getting around it as we had to provide all those options.
However, colour-blind people have been catered for as you will notice that the percentages opting for each choice are written beside each slice – and are listed in descending order of popularity underneath so you don’t have to match up the colours to know what the outcome of the poll was.
Hope this helps,
Regards, Susan
Spots. various direction stripes, etc might help.
No help to me at all and I don’t need a lesson or “help” on how to figure out the result.
BTW, total poll = 96%
You need proper tools.
All of them!
Report this one as well ya clown!
………..We’ve had three years of this, essentially transferring a massive debt burden from the European and Irish banks to the shoulders of the citizens — and then attacking the sick, the handicapped, the elderly, the unemployed and the low-paid to pay for it.
And this month alone, Enda Kenny’s Government will pay a total of €4.3bn (€4,299,705,436, to be exact) to similar gamblers — at the insistence of the IMF/EU. The Government will borrow that money and shortly afterwards Mr Noonan will bring in a Budget that will seek to save up to €4bn in cuts and tax increases.
Madness.
read more at
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/gene-kerrigan/gene-kerrigan-hooray-were-back-on-track-again-2873035.html
we’re not selling off assets to pay for our bail out – we’d be selling them off to pay for the money a fatally sick man borrowed on “our” behalf to pay off euro & int’l banks…. and if you’d like to know more about where the money of this country is going, look at:
Not that hes worth anything could we sell of David Higgins first?
What’s up with the thumbs down?? It’s a very apt poem for this era. Probably the Irish-in-denial crowd that are so ashamed of our culture.
Mmmm selling state assets to pay some one elses bill, a quote comes to mind
“If you want to cut your own throat, don’t come to me for a bandage.”
Margaret Thatcher
Wow, the thumbs down militia are in force today, is it just random negativity?
Hiding behind an anonymous thumbs down because you disagree with a persons sentiment – how very Irish.
Have we learned nothing from the failure of neo liberal economic policy across the globe? The only people who benefit from privatisation are the Michael O’Learys and Denis O’Briens. Look at the eircom fiasco! Neo liberalism has proven as big a failure as authoritarian communism.
With “Mammy O Rourke at the steering wheel what did people expect from the sale of Eircom ? Ah hold on ,we relected her twice more after that Eircom fiasco and promoter her to a ministerial role,hey but thats “Paddywack Ireland” for you.
Full of Gombeens ,Jinnets and chancers out to make a quick buck on anyones back.
The very Hymn page most of us sang from a small 4 years ago.
Whats in the future you will always find in the past !!
Please Mark, what exactly is Neo-Liberalism? And how has it failed? And how does selling off “assets” immediately Neo-Libearlism?
If you mean by the State getting out of the market place has failed, you’re wrong and just have been listening to empty rhetoric. After all, considering Government has controlled the money supply and debt-equity ratio it makes no sense to say that lack of Government intervention caused the financial collapse. In fact, it was Government’s mismanagement over the money supply (too high) and interest rates (too low) is what has actually caused the collapsed.
So why oh why does it make sense that these things remain in the clearly incompetent hands of Government?
Michael O’Leary pays…what €20 million a year in taxes personally. The Irish should be proud of his business, the biggest airline in Europe.
Too true William – it’s agonising to admit it, but the bastard O’Leary and his operation are actually something we can and should be proud of. We need to remember what a flight to London used to cost before Ryanair, in between legitimately griping about the gleeful nastiness of the whole show.
Ciaran is Dead right, they belong to us. Honestly who would sell the national lottery it’s making money and giving to charities that would probably have to be financed by the tax payers if the national lottery was a private company.
Aer Lingus should be the first to go. Privatise them and then see how arrogant the stewardesses are when they are working for Michael O’Leary. The organisation is an embarrassment to the country and a piss take of the consumer.
I frequently fly with Aer Lingus and I must disagree with you. I have flown with Ryanair only once and it was horrendous compared to Aer Lingus. It is true that Ryanair is a bit cheaper but it can’t even come close to Aer Lingus in service and flair. It is the national airline after all. Imagine how things will be should Mick get his hands on those shares and create a controlling monopoly (if he were allowed that is).
Sell off the ESB and Bord Gais, but we must learn from our mistakes with eircom. The State must keep full control/ownership of the the distribution networks of both of these companies.
Same with selling Coillte, keep the land in state control and sell off the remaining parts of the organization.
goverment buildings and all that go with it
Privatise the government. Interesting.
I don’t think he meant privatise the government and you know that’s not what Derek meant David.
But if anything should be sold it should be something that costs us billions every year and we get no return on it – ie, the government
@ Derek, I was going to say the government, but we wouldn’t get an awful lot for that crowd!!!
i’d rather none but hey i know they will prob plough on ahead with it anyhow…. if they do it should be RTE i’d say. we cannot allow the lotto or coillte to go into private hands. the national lottery makes us money which is for the most part ploughed straight back into community projects. and coillte needs to be protected so that our forests aren’t gutted for resources
retired Ministers, TDs etc. 10 a penny???
Johnny Ronan.
Tis the stuff of daymares,sell the Dail bar jasus.Hic!…
Must have been something i ate,Hic…
I’d like to buy a bus lane or the M-50 tolls business.
You can’t buy the M50 tolls business unless you’re very well connected; that’s the law.
Beverly Cooper Flynns chip shop , Mary Harneys weight watchers subscription, Brian Cowens share in his bog , Batt O Keefes hands free kit (no sorry scrap the last one it doesn’t exist), the Brass around Berties neck plenty of scrap value there,Jackie Healy Raes thick skin handy for body armour i know a butcher who can get it off him in one piece while he is walking around in it. Any more suggestions on a postcard to Ms Merkel at the Fuhrer bunker Berlin.
NB John Gormleys vegetable patch and shed as well, all the Green TD’S are living in it now they have no jobs.
Hard to believe when the read your list Anthony that all the above mentioned chancers were involved in running OUR country at different stages.
Jesus its terrifying to say the least !!
It would make you think wouldn’t it Mel , i don’t think i could list them all as the majority of the last bunch were all pretty shameless, sad thing is though if the crash hadn’t happened they would likely all still be there.
Do you know how much they spending on the food, lodging ,transport, security etc etc for all those in the Dail? First they should start from them.
I suspect it’s the FG and labour contingent who scour the web dropping negativity on everything contrary to what Kenny and Gilmore say, quite possibly these FG/labour were up in arms against every FF policy shouting unfairness at every opportunity yet blindly accept the exact same policies adopted by this coalition.
As long as it’s their crowd doing the harm it’s ok.
I like the way noone is talking about what we should be nationalisg, i.e. the gas and oil reserves that we literally handed away for nothing yet which are worth billions, in some cases even trillions of euro’s. Along with legalising it and starting to mass grow hemp, we’d be out of a recession in no time.
Sorry let me rephrase that, we’d be out of debt in no time. I doubt the current morons we have in power would have the first clue how to get us out of a recession.
And pray tell, Vaillintín, where would all the money for oil and gas exploration comes from?
And the State can barely run a bus service, what makes you think it can, a- find oil/gas, b- get it out of the ground, c- get it to land?
Using Venezuela as an example, their state owned oil company has made them the third largest exporter of oil in the world AND the exploration undertaken by their state owned oil company has recently led to them discovering oil reserves that have made them the single largest holders of oil reserves in the world. Bear in mind the figures that have been quoted by themselves and other international organisations are conservative and they may in fact have even more. If a South American under developed nation can do it, then surely we can. Although the cant do attitude of some of our citizens might just hold us back a bit.
Actually Cillian, the trend globally is very much towards NOCs (National Oil Companies) as countries realise their value. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_oil_company not that wiki is a source of fact but you get the picture
The comments about Venezuela are inaccurate and simplistic Wikipedia again … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Venezuelan_oil_industry
the comments about Venezuela are true and reported by most in the media.
As "state assets", profits should of been going directly back into the exchequer but we know the swindling that went on and still is…. Gravy anyone? Either Wolfgang or Paddy robbing us, that should be the pole.
The airports
Believe me you do not want your airports sold off, they did that here in Australia, car parking at airports is out of this world.
Sometimes, it is cheaper to fly from Melb to Brisbane and back than it is to pay for parking for 1-2 days at the airport.
On the freeway outside Melbourne airport they have even erected barriers at the side of the freeway to try and stop cars stopping there, waiting for the call from the airport ” we have landed”, just so that they can get try and get out of paying outrageous parking fees.
Don’t let it happen!
Marguerite’s point is silly. It’s already a rip off to park at Irish airports. Private enterprise will always supply an alternative and cheaper car park. Try Faro airport. There are hundreds of cars parked all over the place outside :)
William
My “silly ” point is based on 14 years of experience of dealing with privatised airports here.
Private enterprise, try this for great value = quickie parking of $3 for 20 mins, don’t know of anyone who can drive in, find a park in multi level car park, walk to terminal, meet visitors, walk back to car, drive out and pay in 20mins.
The alternative is $52 for a 1 day or $99 for 2, recently flew to Sydney for $49 each way, so it’s cheaper to fly than park at airport.
Marguerite. When BA & Aer Lingus had a monopoly (or duopoly) on flights between Ireland and the UK, the fare home at Christmas cost me two and a half weeks pay. Now it costs a few hours pay. Private Enterprise is always cheaper, better and gives more variety. The Government owned (or Unite Trade Union owned) ESB has the dearest electricity in Europe.
I repeat again, private enterprise will always supply alternatives. Governments do not.
Why don’t you start an alternative private car park for Melbourne airport a few miles away? If what you say is true you’ll clean up!
Why not sell off a stake in all of them but still keep a controlling interest? That way the government still pulls the strings. Other than that, I’d sell off RTE. Take the money from the licence fee away from them and let them become more self sufficient. Other stations can survive on advertising, why can’t they? It might actually force them to put on better quality programmes if they have to work harder to fill advertising slots. Stands to reason – better programming attracts more viewers which will attract more advertising revenue.
Selling off Aer Lingus would be the very last thing i would do. Ryanair would probably end up buying it which would mean there would less competition for them so fares would probably go up rather than down. The only difference is the people who prefer a paying for a bit more for comfort would just be treated like cattle transported to a place 50 miles from where they wanted to go to. And if you are disabled, well you can forget about flying at all.
Wholeheartedly agree with you regarding the Aer Lingus stakes. Keep them.
Selling them off is a great idea. It makes us money, it stops these wasteful companies from haemorrhaging taxpayer’s money. If the same services are provided, cheaper and more efficiently, the only reason to oppose the selling off of these “assets” (I use the term loosely), is on a matter of blind ideology that the State should be running things for the sake of the State running things.
It’s a short sighted short term solution Cillian which will not make “us” money, it’ll make money for someone but no us.
Suppose I were to pose the question ‘Which Journal contributor’s mother do you think should be sold into slavery first?’. I would be smuggling in as self-evident at least two ideas: (a) that at least one Journal contributor’s mother should be sold into slavery; (b) that it is legitimate to sell people into slavery. The fact that I included an option that allowed for people to say ‘none’ would scarcely diminish the power of the tacit proposition.
Now suppose there was a powerful array of vested interests that wanted the mothers of Journal contributors to be sold into slavery for their own pro-slavery purposes. It would not take a genius to work out that by posing the question I would be assisting the agenda of this group.
However it seems that The Journal can pose an equally biased question and pass it off as though it were not complicit with a particular political position. To spell it out, the posing of the question smuggles in as self-evident the ideas that (a) It is a legitimate course of action to sell off State assets; (b) There should be a sell-off of State assets; and somewhat more obscurely (c) that the participation in a poll of this nature relates to a real situation in which citizens actually decide on whether or not State assets ought to be sold off (when the truth is that it is a forced course of action)
It would therefore have been more transparent, and certainly much more informative if The Journal had posed the question thus:
‘We at The Journal agree with the Government, the ECB, the IMF and dominant financial institutions and other powerful business interests that all state assets should be sold off without a process of public consultation. If you agree, please add your preference below, or alternatively indicate that state assets should not be sold off.’
you are right
the main point people are missing in regards the ESB is that up to now they have primarily been involved in the importation of fossil fuels and transforming them into energy. their plans of investing in renewable energy means that they will be entering a new era. Airtricity was worth 2 million in 1997 and sold for nearly 2 billion in ’07, ten years later, making all its initial investors €76 for every €1 that they had invested at the start. the original founder of Airtricity, Eddie O Connor’s new company Mainstream Renewables has already more than doubled in value in the three years that it has been set up and may be floated on the stock exchange at six to seven times its original value in 2013. According to the last episode of Eco Eye it has been estimated that we have the potential to be exporting €50 billion a year of renewable energy out of this country on top of producing what we need. we could be the future Saudi Arabia of renewable energy and selling the ESB now would be the equivalent to the Saudi’s selling off their oil fields in the 1930s, doing this is probably the most short sighted move in the history of the state
Eco Eye? Now what’s the difference between their objectivity and say The Irish Catholic? The “money being “made” by renewable companies” is scammed from the people via moronic politicians.
there has been over 300 billion invested in renewable energy globally since the recession started, it is one of the few areas that Irish companies can get easy access to easy money at low rates as the market knows energy is the future. Alternative energy companies shares were some of the few that were not affected by the down turn, report after report has stated that we have the best potential for wind and wave power in Europe, your comparison of eco eye with the catholic church seems strange, one relies on a belief structure and preservation of an out dated system, the other is based on reporting facts and possible solutions to present and future events the only possible similarity between them is that they may be passionate in what they believe. it appears from your posts William that you are a good student of free market economics, a model that died in 2008 when the states that it tried so hard to weaken came to the rescue of this unsustainable economic model based on constant growth which inevitably lead to it hitting a wall. States are the insurance companies of the market and should be respected as such but the same foolish ideology of small state government is leading this push and has no real long term framework, only patching up ever bigger holes which itself is creating through a model that simply does not work but has so many people with vested interests in its survival that we are being forced into doing ridiculous measures just to keep the charade going for that bit longer
Marcus, I said what’s the difference in the OBJECTIVITY of Eco Eye and the Irish Catholic, i.e. neither is objective. You’re quoting the opinion of a biased publication.
The fact that investors pour money into a heavily subsidised industry only proves that they expect to make money. Not from the activity itself, they would lose all their investment if that was the case, but because it’s heavily subsidised by the taxpayer. Their profit comes from conning the taxpayer via their elected scientifically & engineering illiterate politicians.
What free market? If the government interferes it’s NOT a free market. The free market is the only game in town.
That 4 sentence rant of yours could be a piece from the Irish Catholic! :)
the only countries that were not badly impacted by the down turn were the Scandinavian countries who have strong government, those that blindly followed the free market mantra of letting the market decide were screwed. presently the free market is the only game in Europe but there are massive shifts happening in South America, a continent that has been continually shafted by the IMF and free market, 250 out of the 350 million people are being governed by left wing parties, Chavez has re nationalised state oil companies, in Bolivia water charges of $200 a year, a third of the average income, caused water riots which eventually lead to them electing their first indigenous leader who is now taxing the oil and gas companies 80%. The free market system creates a race to the bottom and instability in the workforce, with an ever decreasing amount of people gaining, this is what is happening here and creating the climate for massive shifts in politics
i must correct myself when i said that selling the ESB would be the most short sighted move in the history of the state, the state guarantee of all Irish banks was the most short sighted move, this is a little further down the list but we have had time to discuss this so should have been preventable
i agree it is not a free market if the government interferes but this just goes to show that the free market model was adapted by Right wing parties because they knew that it would make rich people richer, destroy the unions, there was a very effective smear campaign against ESB unions leading up to this decision and when the system hit a wall they changed the rules for they were always just looking after the top 1% who increased their wealth from36% to 38% from 2007 to 2009 while the poor of the world were hit by the recession, the chaos that the free market created actually helped get policies in that would never have been acceptable during more balanced times so its a win win for those pushing this agenda and a “every which way you lose” scenario for ordinary workers
@ Jonathan Delaney.. Quite simply… Mortgage against the assets to get them out of the ground…… With guaranteed value on them there are plenty that would be willing to forward the cash…. As for the expertise to get it out of the ground… PLEASE there are many companies available to do so… At the moment we are getting nothing for it from Shell…. We have an oil refinery in cork still(if i’m not mistaken) where we could process the cruede oil and pipe the gas onshore too… FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND and not the super rich shareholders of shell etc
Cillian, if you don’t know what neo-liberalism is or how it has failed, I suggest you avoid matters of economic debate. I’d suggest you read the shock doctrine by Naomi Klein. But you probably won’t.
True Mark, if you want to ask how something has failed, it’s not good to start by asking what it is. :-D
The first and only thing I would sell would be Dáil Eireann and all its contents including the inhabitions.
The only problem being that the entire package is worthless and as usual would end up costing the people money rather then making us a few quid !
I’d be agreeable with selling off RTÃ
Or T Ã….you mean :)
What Mark Hoskins said!
@Brian – brown envelopes is a great name for politicians.There should be a tribunal to find 1 honest TD.
If they find gas and oil off the Kerry coast we might have to elect a Healy Rea to the Aras.
Who in their right mind would buy RTE !
Dermot, these things are losing us money through taxes, the inefficient and expensive services that are run lose us money when you pay for them as they are so uncompetitive.
By selling them the exchequer may actually gain SOME money. But fundamentally Government run companies are costly, provide inefficient service and makes no sense to keep them other than maybe in the future they may some day make us a few bob.
The only problem at the moment may actually be finding somebody who’ll take them off our hands.
every single one of them
Agree with you
Shock Capitalism!
Build all these assets back up to a level where they are efficient, make money and then see if it is a good idea to sell them …. As someone mentions in an earlier comment, there is a lot of fat that can be discarded … (even in profitable ones like the Lotto).
Clearly our most valuable assets are our top civil servants, politicians, bankers, barristers, judges and consultants; sell them – save us all a bloody fortune.
Why would we sell off our state assets for?? The EU/IMF will snatch the money we get from it anyway so why not just hold onto them and have at least once continuous source of revenue for the state…
All the people who are commenting that it’s a good idea 4 are state/ peoples assets i hope u remember what ye have said and pass it on to the future generations. country’s need control of their energy,water, ports,. especially a small Island that is broke and has little sovereignty.This will be a disaster..This only happens to 3rd world country’s who r being hit with this economic imperialism.”do u see the Greeks doing it No”. why don’t the idiot gov wait until the Greek default works out…
How much is it really gonna save the state, will the new company’s take the pension liability’s doubt it.( these are not the gov ts to sell).Anyone who believes what they say they would want to wake up.Remember all the spin. They r incapable/corrupt to do this remember eircom, esat, oil and gas all F**ked up
What happens if these companys either go bust or are not making enough profit ,yes they will have to b bailed out by the taxpayer. these are to big to fail,and forget investment in them..like our shit broadband.
Ireland is gonna be at the total mercy of private companys like the banks remember them.This is so short sighted its unreal. So print out your comment to show your kids in the future…:((…:((
throw in the bunch ……..
y sould they sell any of them they will take more from the people in the long run if they do
Country’s “assets”? RTE, ESB, CIE etc etc. These semi state white elephants are bleeding the country dry along with the army of ex TD’s, senators, civil servants, judges and all the other ‘entitlements’ mafia who have walked away with €billions despite having bankrupted the state and leaving the majority of the population facing poverty!
The ESB (over manned and overpaid apparatchiks), the Airports sold off separately (they spent €170m for Cork airport and it’s worth maybe €10m), CIE & it’s associates (there’s no direct bus from Cork to Dublin and the rail fares are a rip off) and Bord Gais should all be sold.
http://tubeplus.me/player/649942/Zeitgeist:_Addendum/
quick watch and see whary you think
marguerite, just checked Car parking web sites in Melbourne. Airport costs (in dollars) 29 or 52, depending on distance to Airport or why not try Andrew’s Car park (www.andrewsairportpark.com) at 22, seems like I’d go for the private operator every time???
we should start by selling off the dail the windbags could meet on a park bench for all the good they do
It’s been asked, “who owns the ESB?”. Well listening to the RTE news this morning, the Unite trade union think they do.
I”m of to build a scalpeen……
have your say