Principled policy on privatisation needed

PRIVATISATION is the economic term used to describe the dismantling of a social ideal aimed at providing a range of empowering services for all citizens.

It is the hollowing out of a political project aimed at replacing privilege with opportunity that, after World War I, changed European social hierarchies for ever and replaced something approaching serfdom with the possibility of social equity and justice.

Though it may not chime with the political or economic Zeitgeist State and semi-State, organisations in this country did far more than free-market economics to change this from a poor, insular and agrarian society to what it is today. They — the ESB, Irish Shipping, Aer Lingus, Teagasc, Bord na Mona, RTÉ, the IDA, An Post and many more — were conduits for social and commercial ambition that served this Republic well. They were sometimes less than efficient and often self-serving — a reflection of the society they served — but their raison d’être was social progress for everyone rather than profit for the usual and impenetrable golden circle.