Much of the State's infrastructure is in a shambles, the National Roads Authority should be dismissed and the ESB and Aer Rianta should be broken up and privatised, Mr Denis O'Brien said yesterday.
He argued that the State needed to take over authority for land rezoning, described the country's hospitals as dirty and infection-ridden places which should have private involvement and advocated a society free from racism and xenophobia.
Mr O'Brien, chairman of the Communicorp Group and former chairman and CEO of East Telecom, also told delegates at the annual conference of ISME - the small and medium businesses' organisation - that infrastructural and industrial bottlenecks should be tackled like the foot-and-mouth crisis.
Mr O'Brien had praise in his speech only for the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, for his handling of the disease crisis and for civil servants, whom he believes are not appreciated. "As more civil servants are tempted by higher pay in the private sector, we could end up with a brain drain and no blood line of talent coming through. This country will ultimately suffer."
Reports like the Buckley report on civil service pay were "not worth the paper they are written on. The notion of pay 50 per cent below the market rate for a job will only attract somebody totally dedicated to public service or people of a lesser ability", he said.
Mr O'Brien likened the roads infrastructure to "an African network for a 21st century economy" and suggested that Ireland should follow the lead of the Tanzanian government and bring in 10,000 Chinese to build motorways. Emergency legislation was required to revamp the Compulsory Purchase Order system to allow road construction to proceed.
Mr O'Brien - who is involved in the electricity industry though his company ePower - was highly critical of the ESB, the manner in which power had been auctioned to new wholesalers, and of the electricity regulator, Mr Tom Reeves.
"The Government needs to immediately deregulate the whole industry. Why should it be only the large companies who get the benefits of deregulation first?" he asked.
He supported the criticisms of Ryanair's Mr Michael O'Leary of Aer Rianta. "The whole debate on Dublin airport needs to be dusted down. Michael O'Leary of Ryanair is right about the chaos and high costs at Dublin airport although his methods wouldn't be mine. Baldonnel should be handed over to a private sector operator and within six months Dublin would have two airports."
Galway's "dinky airport" which cannot take large jets should be moved to Oranmore where there was a substantial tract of Department of Defence lands, and regional airports like Waterford should be revitalised.
On housing, he said the supply of building land was the main problem. "The State needs to take over the authority for zoning. Land zoned should be built on immediately since the State has provided most of the infrastructure."
Hospitals must be better managed; doctors and nurses were working in deplorable conditions, and still doing so only because of their commitment to public service. There was a cartel among consultants which prevented the creation of new posts. "Blackrock and the Mater Private should be asked to take on under-performing regional hospitals to see if they could provide a better service at a lower cost on a long-term contract," he suggested.
