A gamble on privatisation? - Broadband ownership

A GOOD number of the difficulties facing this society can be traced to an over-reliance on the market to solve problems.

We have a housing crisis because Government ended the practice of building social housing and curtailed supply. Just last month, plans around refuse collection had to be deferred because the ambitions of business and the public did not match. We have a two-tier health system, which is great if you have access to the right tier but less so if not.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s inexplicable refusal to copper-fasten the public ownership of Irish Water was one of the issues that cost Fine Gael so many seats in the recent election.