THE IRISH Congress of Trade Unions has proposed the Government sell shares in an overall holding company encompassing all semi-State organisations rather than part- privatising the ESB.
Ictu general secretary David Begg said yesterday that he would prefer if the Government did not sell the family silver. He said that “once you start selling a few forks, it very quickly gets on to the soup spoons and, before long, a lot more is gone than you expect”.
“I think if we wanted to be very creative on how this could be handled, on the assumption that the Government is under stress from the troika to meet the target of the €2 billion which is set out in the memorandum of understanding, a much better way would be to create a State holding company into which all State assets and all semi-State companies could be .”
He said that shares in this overall State holding company could be sold to raise the money.
“In that sense, strategically, it would not affect any of the companies individually and also it would provide a certain amount of money which might allow the State holding company to become a job-creation vehicle.”
Separately yesterday, the country’s largest trade union said it was opposed to plans to sell a minority stake in the ESB.
Siptu said that the Government should seek to renegotiate the agreement with the EU/European Central Bank/International Monetary Fund troika “rather than engage in a fire sale of strategic State assets”. The union made no reference in its statement to the possibility of industrial action over the Government’s plans.
The Unite trade union has said it will ballot its members at the ESB for industrial action in response to the Government’s plans to sell part of the company.
Secretary to the ESB group of unions Brendan Ogle said it would reflect on the situation and meet soon. He said this meeting would consider how the Government’s announcement impacted on a motion the unions passed in July to ballot on industrial action in the event of the Government selling or divesting of the ESB.
Siptu energy sector organiser Greg Ennis said: “We fully understand the enormous implications of the troika agreement and we also understand why the Minister is uncomfortable with the policy of selling a share of the ESB to private commercial interests. But, in our view, it is a bad policy. We also note the Minister’s insistence that the proceeds of any such sale should go to job creation but we believe that there is a better way of doing this. The Government should seek to renegotiate the troika agreement so as to obviate the need to get into a fire sale of a minority stake in this highly profitable company which has generated huge dividends over the decades while never receiving a subsidy from the State.”
Minister for Enterprise and Jobs Richard Bruton said he was confident the benefits of the plan to sell part of the ESB would emerge. “The Government made a decision . . . that we would sell a minority share in the ESB and that we would assess other assets. There is a working group established between the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and Minister Rabbitte who will develop that process and that process will be carefully developed with the interests of the Irish people and the Irish State at its heart. I’m confident that process will produce a good result for the country . . .”
Asked whether trade unions should take action, he said: “I’m not going to tell unions what to do but the Government has taken a decision; it’s a prudent decision and there is a process in place which will make sure the interests of the State are protected – that mistakes that may have been made in the past in respect of the sale of assets won’t occur again. I’m confident in that process and workers in the ESB can be confident in that process.”