Union representatives have rejected the Progressive Democrats' plan to sell off commercial State companies to fund investment in social and economic infrastructure.
SIPTU's vice-president, Mr Jack O'Connor, said there was "nothing new or imaginative or desirable" in the plan. SIPTU represents members in Aer Lingus, Bord Gáis, the ESB and the ports, the companies earmarked for sale under the PD plan.
The PD manifesto said it would allow these companies to achieve "corporate independence" and to secure their development as private companies during the term of the next government.
"It's a straightforward return to the policies promoted by Margaret Thatcher in Britain in the 1980s and they are still trying to recover from that," Mr O'Connor said.
The plan did not make sense in a dynamic economy where money could be borrowed at low interest rates and the economy had stabilised. He said the sale of State bodies was not in the long-term interests of the people, who would ultimately see their assets under the control of foreign investors.
Mr O'Connor said the union was particularly concerned at the proposal to sell the commercial ports.
He pointed to the public investment in the Dublin Port Tunnel and said the public did not make this commitment so that a private investor could reap the profits.
IMPACT's spokesman, Mr Bernard Harbor, said the union would not like to see the "wholesale selling off of public assets simply to raise money".
The trade union took a pragmatic view on the sale of State companies and believed that if companies were to be sold, they must be looked at on a case-by-case basis. "Will it provide a better service? What is best for the organisation? Is it in the best interests of the country?"
Mr Paddy Reilly, secretary of the ESB group of unions, which represents 10 unions, said the group would not publicly comment on the PD plan.
"Our position is that we will not comment on any party's political manifesto," he said.
"If it becomes a policy issue with any government at any stage then we will talk to the government and we will make our point of view very, very clear."
Speaking off the record, a spokesman for one ESB union said the time was not right for such a move.
