Privatisation - Wrong time to sell the family silver

The parable about a hungry man and a fish is often used to support the idea of development aid and self help.

The gist of it is that if you give a man a fish you feed him for just one day but if you teach him to fish you feed him and his family forever. The kernel being that investment pays off on a long-term basis but sticking-plaster solutions just defer the inevitable.

Our Government, in a kind of perverted inversion of that logic, considered selling harvesting rights to State forests but our debts are so huge that a forestry fire sale wouldn’t make any meaningful contribution to resolving our woes. This may be the reason the idea of a sale has been shelved. That very welcome decision positively answers many other arguments as well, especially on jobs, public access and financial consequences. It also suggests that the widespread opposition to the plan had some impact, though that may just be coincidental.

The idea first came from economist Colm McCarthy. He also suggested that Bord na Móna could sell peat extraction rights but retain ownership of the land in question as well. Though the harvesting proposals have not cut the muster, the suggestion that Bord na Móna and Coillte be merged is to go ahead. They will develop bio-energy and forestry interests. This represents a huge challenge but a huge opportunity too.

The challenge lies in building a 21st century semi-state company from the ground up, one hopefully without some of the constraints that seem such a feature of semi-state companies. This could be a benchmark project, one that imagines how Ireland might be rather than how it is. It will require a steadfastness not often associated with semi-state companies if their very best characteristics are to flourish, despite some legacy issues.

That the State is to involve itself in a commercial bio-energy business is welcome too, even if many questions around bio-energy and its sustainability remain. This may just be the catalyst those who wish to rebuild the once-lucrative beet sector might need to get a more sympathetic hearing. In any event, any project that might reduce dependency on imported energy, whether derived from fossil fuels or not, must be considered and hopefully welcomed in time.

The debate about private or public ownership has swung with the political philosophy pendulum over the ages, reaching a kind of ideological crescendo in the Reagan/Thatcher era. Now that the private sector praetorian guard, the banks and financial services sector, have been shown to be as venal, as untrustworthy as any fly-by-night hucksters, maybe it’s time we were far more circumspect about entrusting vital social services to private enterprises. Coillte’s woods and Bord na Móna’s peat may be safe for the moment but sections of what was once the ESB and Bord Gáis are set for privatisation. In time Irish Water may become an attractive target for venture capitalists. Already, we have seen tolls imposed on more and more of our roads though there has not been a public debate or mandate on the issue.

Of course, privatisation has its attractions but at a time when we are all suffering from the consequences of out-of-control capitalism, it might seem unwise to put even more eggs in that tattered, stained basket.