Madam, – Can the eminently sensible Brian Lenihan be serious about selling off state assets to make an impact on the €84 billion national debt? (Home News, July 23rd). Firstly the sale of the whole lot might yield €25 billion and then again it might not.
It is estimated that the two most asset-rich, ESB and Bord Gáis, which also happen to be the most profitable, might yield €10 billion between them. Even if the sale of all the semi-state companies were to yield €84 billion and completely wiped out the national debt what would we be left with?
You don’t have look too far in Britain or anywhere else in Europe to see that ESB and Bord Gáis would soon be in the hands of American or European energy companies with the requirement to yield profits/value for shareholders on an almost quarterly basis – or worse, remember Enron?
ESB and Bord Gáis are profit generators for the State, RTÉ for all its faults is better under the mandarins of Donnybrook than the Murdochs or Packers of this world, and do we really want our airports run by Michael O’Leary? Have we all forgotten the Eircom fiasco?
These state assets along with mining, communication, forestry, marine and air space rights, are all the people’s assets which this Government does not have a mandate to sell off. I suspect that the investigating team under the equally sensible Colm McCarthy probably already knows that this is a crazy idea . – Yours, etc,
Madam, – If, as Oscar Wilde suggested, a cynic is one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing, the review of commercial state bodies announced by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan last week is a cynical exercise.
Look at the terms of reference: to consider the potential for asset disposals in the public sector, including commercial state bodies, in view of the indebtedness of the State; to draw up a list of possible asset disposals; to assess how the use and disposition of such assets can best help restore growth and contribute to national investment priorities; and to review where appropriate, relevant investment and financing plans, commercial practices and regulatory requirements affecting the use of such assets in the national interest.
Not even a nod to the value of the institutions, economic, social or cultural. Using Colm McCarthy’s slide rule, RTÉ and TG4 will be examined apparently without any reference to the concept of public service broadcasting or the cultural values underpinning the establishment of TG4.
While there is reference to “proper stewardship of State assets” in the preamble, the terms of reference suggest a bias towards selling the family silver.
My work brings me into daily contact with RTÉ .
There is room for reforms, not least of the unwieldy and highly expensive business model, based on a system of Integrated Business Divisions (IBDs). One can imagine that there is room for reform of other commercial bodies and there must be scope for co-operation between, for example, Bord na Mona and Coillte. But what McCarthy has been charged with is examining the possibility of asset disposal.
A fire sale of State assets would not be the answer to our problems. Have we not learned the lessons of Eircom? Yours, etc,
Madam, – Has it come to this? First the state must buy the worst of capitalism’s bad debts and sell its valuable assets back to the market to pay for these debts! To me this looks like theft. – Yours, etc,