A new holding company for all semi-State companies should be created with the shareholding administered by the Department of Finance transferred to the new entity, a new document from Ictu proposes.
Deregulation in recent years and the resultant changes to competition law means the Government role in semi-states has altered. This has resulted in the companies encountering difficulties in accessing investment capital, according to Ictu general secretary David Begg.
In the foreword to the document A New Governance Structure for State Companies, Mr Begg notes that despite the call for privatisation of these companies by "advocates of liberal economics", the OECD, among others, has acknowledged a role for state-owned enterprises.
"The present unsatisfactory state of neglect of the semi-state sector cannot continue," Mr Begg said.
Ictu argues that while there considerable consensus that the state should maintain the controlling interest in "natural monopolies" - for instance in the provision of critical infrastructure, the State has a role in other sectors.
For instance, it opposes the mooted sell-off of Aer Lingus. "A national airline which will provide links to other countries, when private sector airlines may not provide the required level of service, depending on the economics and on their own short-term considerations," the document says.
It proposes the shareholding of each of the commercial state companies be transferred from the Department of Finance to a new holding company with its own board and with its role set out clearly by statute. The holding company would be legally owned by a new board of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) with the "economic ownership held for the benefit of the nation".
The holding company would act like an institutional shareholder, but in line with its statutory obligations. It could assess requests for investment capital from the individual companies and decide how much, if any, to make available.
Apart form the dividends form the constituent companies the holding company could raise cash by issuing a limited amount of shares to private pension funds.
The holding company would be accountable to a "powerful and well resourced" joint oireachtas committee, under the proposal, with two board members be appointed by Government and ratified by the Oireachtas.