Eircom must ring in some changes

MATT COOPER (March 11) states that Eircom is an important company in Ireland. Perhaps there might be another way to look at the story. Eircom is not the important bit, it’s the physical telecommunications network which is the important bit.

As Mr Cooper says, the owners of Eircom have pillaged the company over the years with no attempt whatsoever to make real and constructive investment in the product on which the company depended for its survival — the network.

If Eircom was making money now, I’ve no doubt the owners of the company, including the staff share ownership trust would quite happily sell the company to the next higher bidder and make another killing. Even so-called staff share ownership trusts are just as capitalist as the rest of us, when there’s a chance to make an easy buck. So, why not let the owners now take the hit with the losses and massive debt with which the company is loaded? Perhaps what should happen (now that we’ve got a government of all the talents) is, the Government should buy back the physical network from Eircom for €1. But leave the company and all its debts in the hands of the owners. Then, lease the network back to Eircom, and any other companies that are interested, with strict conditions as to the development of the network in a real and meaningful way.