Government asserts authority by resisting privatisation pressure

Not quite free of its troika handcuffs, the Government is reasserting its sovereignty by backtracking on the privatisation of key State assets and very few, if any, are complaining.

It was the doomed Fianna Fáil-led coalition that suggested to the EU-IMF troika in 2010 that the sale of a number of State assets would raise up to €3bn to help pay down the national debt.

At the time, the country was on its knees, terrified that hedge fund vultures were going to steal our best performing assets for a song and cream off the profits for eternity from state companies that we the taxpayers had built and funded over decades.