We pay a high price for privatisation

PROFESSOR Edward Walsh of the University of Limerick says the public sector should withdraw from activities which could be delivered more effectively by the private sector.

At an ISME conference recently in Enfield, Co Meath, he called for a public sector pull-out.

In short what he meant was that we should privatise everything state-controlled and that the state should concentrate on legislation and infrastructure only.

One look at the telecom debacle is enough for people to realise there is something amiss with this philosophy when small shareholders were conned and control of the company ended up with a small number of people.

When a small country like ours loses control of key infrastructure it is usually snapped up by multinational giants thereby fuelling the globalisation process concentrating power in fewer and fewer hands.

This, in turn, leads to the country losing a lot of its independence and democratic control.

If we surrender control to these faceless people it’s doubtful we will ever get it back.

I often wonder about the motives of some elected representatives when they actively promote these privatisation policies because it’s like turkeys voting for Christmas.

It is the responsibility of all nationalists and democratically minded citizens to try keep control of public services and cultivate private indigenous enterprise whenever possible.

Patrick J Fitzgerald

Leperstown

Dunmore East

Co Waterford