Semi-state sector - Rejuvenate rather than sell services

ONE of the very few rewards for being in opposition is that you can make proposals on a truly grand scale without having to be too explicit about how they might work. This freedom energises imaginations and facilitates a radical approach.

Yesterday, Fine Gael launched proposals which are the result of refining a plan published last March. The party focussed on our second-rate infrastructure – water, broadband, energy – and also suggested a new model for healthcare. Fine Gael also proposes reducing Oireachtas membership by 30%.

Described by Enda Kenny as an “€18bn investment over four years to make Ireland competitive again while creating over 100,000 jobs”, it is ambitious and timely.

Its author, Simon Coveney, claims it could represent the greatest transformation of our economy and commercial semi-state sector in over 50 years. For “transformation” read privatisation; Mr Coveney suggests the State should sell off sections of the ESB and our water services.

It is a brave man or party, who, at the very moment our economic independence is threatened by the failure of capitalism, would suggest we entrust two staples of life – energy and water – to private interests.

Surely, the very hard lesson of the last two years is that private enterprises of “systematic importance” cannot be trusted to always act in a socially responsible way?

Implicit too is the suggestion that semi-state or Government enterprises are incapable of efficiently providing these services. There may be considerable evidence to support that contention but that does not mean that with reform and leadership, energy, vision and – that old fashioned but important virtue – active, practical patriotism, that these services could not be the great forces of innovation and advancement they once were.

The list of semi-State achievement is considerable: An Foras Talúntais became ACOT which, in turn, became Teagasc, and was one of the great forces for advancement in agriculture. The Sugar Company can be remembered in similar terms. Irish Shipping served us well while we tried to establish an international business presence. RTÉ has made as significant a contribution to Irish social evolution as any other organisation.

When this was an agrarian and impoverished country – not so long ago – the ESB literally dragged us out of the dark ages and into the light of the modern world. Bord na Móna did something similar. All of these organisations were run by state or semi-state employees and though they may not have been perfect their achievements were considerable. While Fine Gael’s proposals are informed by the private-is-best mores of today, surely the achievements of the past point to a possibility that we should not easily dismiss.

Fine Gael are right when they suggest reshaping our state-owned enterprises. But, rather than sell them off, surely we all would be better off with a state sector absolutely committed to serving all the communities that make up this society rather than serving invisible bondholders or anonymous shareholders?

That objective may have been sidelined in recent times but there was never a better moment to restore it to centre stage. The country needs it; the economy needs it. Our spirits and our future need it too. And without it the public service will have little enough defence against those who advocate privatisation.