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PARTS OF BORD Gais and the ESB are to be sold off by the government, Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin has announced.
The government will also considering selling off some assets of Coillte and the state’s 25 per cent shareholding in Aer Lingus when market conditions improve.
However the government has decided not to proceed with the sale of a minority stake in ESB.
The sale of up to €3 billion worth of state assets is required under the terms of the bailout deal struck with the troika. However in a significant change to the EU/IMF deal, one third of the money raised from the sale of the state assets can be reinvested in the Irish economy and will not have to go towards reducing Ireland’s debt.
“When we came into government, the position was that no money from the disposal of assets could be spent on anything except reducing our debts,” said Minister Brendan Howlin.
“I am pleased that following intense engagement the troika has agreed that one third of the proceeds can be used for reinvestment in to our economy. This is a substantial change to the Troika’s previous position and will help promote recovery in the economy”.
Today’s decision will see Bord Gais’s energy business sold off, but not the company’s gas transmission or distribution systems or the two gas interconnectors. Some of ESB’s non-strategic power generation capacity will also be sold off.
Former Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan created a review group in July 2010 led by UCD economist Colm McCarthy to advise on the future of commercial semi-states. The report by the group recommended the part-privatisation of ESB and CIE and the full privatisation of Dublin Bus, and suggested the State could make €5 billion in selling off assets.
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How can the government decide what assets to sell without consulting the people that own them.
Because the people that own them elected the Government.
Lazy rubbish answer Donal. They have no right to sell what doesn’t belong to them. I don’t remember voting for the Troika!!!
It’s the correct answer though Réada and while you may not have voted for the Troika (don’t remember them being on the ballot paper myself), if you voted for one of the Government parties, or for FF, you voted to implement the MOU.
Jerry if you wish to be consulted about everything, become a TD!
Donal. If there’s money to be made from state assets the state, ie us the people, should be the ones making it.
I’ve made no secret of the fact I voted Labour in the hopes of watering down the Thatcherites that are now in government. Big Fail – Never Again.
Donal FG LAB has achieved its position in goverment through fraud ,every thing they said they would do if the got into goverment has fallen by the way side ,in a court of law everything must revert back to the beginning if convicted of fraud .
Reg i`d probably be as good as we have at the moment
Jerry – don’t undersell yourself, you’d probably be better than many of them!
Because we elected them….
Look at Howlin looking for credit that we are allowed to keep 33% of our own money citing the negotiating skills of the government. I’d be more inclined to give you credit if you stuck to 33% of your pre election promises and hard line attitude in relation to bond holders. You and your government are letting us down big time Howlin. But as long as you end up with the fat salary, expenses, pension and clear conscience – then everything will be just fine!!!
And so the fire sale begins
Maybe they sold the Cliffs of Moher to the Chinese when the VP was here.
€3 billion will almost cover the payout to the bondholders for a whole year.! !
you mean the interest of the bailout right? €3 billion only covers the interest
Can I not call the Irish government idiots? Anyway this is the beginning of the end of state owned assets. Everything will be privatised and we will gain what? 3 billion quid in the short term what about the long term value of These assets. This government is ridiculous in thinking of considering a sale in a crisis. They will only get liquidation prices for any of these assets. What a bunch of idiots.
We get €1bn and the European bankers get the other €2bn as far as I can make out. And Howlin wants credit!!
This governement is giving Anglo another 3 billion this March 31st unnecesarily.
Irish government = idiots
Another Eircom!
How is it another eircom exactly?
What happened with eircom was alot of very stupid people that didn’t know how shares work and how the stock market worked bought shares and just expected them to go up, they didn’t so they lost money and then they cried about it. Any idiot who didn’t understand the risks shouldn’t have bought shares to begin with.
Another eircom would be keeping a monopoly stranglehold in Ireland like Eircom still has in Ireland, this is why we do not have a decent Broadband service in Ireland.
Barry
A lot of trusting people were taken advantage of….. I was not one as I did not have any money then.
So no it is not like Eircom…This way way worse …
Surely this should be decided by referendum. A government, or certain ministers at least, that may possibly only be in power for one term should not be making such an important decision.
Absolutely.
One third is going back into the Irish economy? Oh woopdeedoo. Selling the house to pay the mortgage. The most retarded decision yet.
Not one third. It will be less then that. I wonder how much will be spent on the various experts and consultants who will be forming a queue to board this particular gravy train. There must be many ‘partners’ in some firms who are already cracking open the chilled champagne at this news.
Glad to hear they will be investing some of the proceeds on job creation :-)
Why not sell Leinster House, with all the politicians in it! Whether that counts as a state asset, I don’t really know. Lol
No it doesn’t mate who the hell would pay for those shower of gangster’s
Great. Eircom was a great success. Look at the mess its in now. Others to go same way.
The way I see it is that these sales are forced upon us and the muppets in our govt are just rolling over and playing the good austerity boys they are by selling off all our assets. The fact is after they sell everything we are still left with a mountain of debt which can never be paid. Which will ultimately result in us defaulting and left with nothing. So why not keep our assets and default NOW! At least then we have something to use to start over.
Take a look at this link (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15748696), it shows how much debt we owe and to whom we it to! Our debt for every man, woman and child living in this country is €390,000 per person. So my household (2adult + 3 kids) literaly owe the bones of €2m, never mind my own mortgage and cc debt. Jaysus I’m just about clearing the cc debt and paying all the other bills, how the hell do they expect the tax payer to service never mind clear the other €390k per person?? They say Greece is a basket case, FFS their indebtedness is only €38k per person!!!
Save our assets and tell everyone else to fck off!!!
Indeed, and what will they try sell off to come up with each of the next few 3Billion packages we are to cough up?
We are letting these clowns sell everything they can grab like a man running out of a burning house, and we know the end of that story….The house is burnt to the ground with nothing recoverable or of value left to generate new credit. People need to snap out of this trance that we must comply with everything the Govt. is doing to us and to the country as they are “elected” Fock that, they were elected on the bases to do the flocking opposite of what they are doing now. Dermot Purcell mentioned something above
“in a court of law everything must revert back to the beginning if convicted of fraud”
FG/LAB got in on lies and fraudulent promises. Call them on it and see if the means are there to save what’s left of our country before they have it all sold over the next few years.
Where will we be when we have nothing left to sell and still up to our eye balls in the debt that this and the previous Govt left us with?
when you’re in debt you get rid of liabilities before assets. 3 liabilities i’d gladly wave goodbye to in the morning, whose absence from the irish economy would be a good thing and whose absence would stop the continued haemorrhaging of money for no return:
Anglo (thousands of millions a year), FAS (ditto, 17% less likely to get a job with FAS on your cv), HSE (ditto, couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery). that’s just three.
But no, instead of going ahead and cutting necrosis and infection out of the economy, our beloved masters are taking us down the route of hacking off perfectly healthy limbs instead.
the government is nuts, and they will be seen to be even more demented in the years to come
None of these so called assets are of strategic value to the State and thus their sale at reasonable value which must exceed a multiple of any dividends or profits is attractive. However such attractiveness would be qualified by the use of funds received. Why any one believes that a State owned Company must remain in such ownership for ever is beyond me unless the view is expressed by its employees who may fear open market Management and a change in work practices.
Unfortunately in Ireland employment in these Bodies is considered nearly as sacred as the Public Service and work practices do not usually conform to the norms of a standard commercial entity.
The Government has expressly stated that they will not be rushed into any sale and that would appear to remove any other negatives from this decision.
Let the Sale commence!
@mark Rodgers.
Point is no choice here, Berlin directing this. Everyone here missing the point. Who will buy them, chop them up and sell them off? German and French companies, of course. Sick joke, the whole lot.
All of these assets are of strategic value. If any purchaser is found it will be on the basis that a profit can be made from the investment. There is no reason why the same profit cannot be made by us the people through the current state ownership.
It makes you wonder if any member of the Government ever negotiated a business investment in his / her life. They certainly seem to be seriously lacking in any sense of entrepreneurship in handling our money.
No doubt trade union agitators will be out and about encouraging disruption and strikes. Can’t upset the gravy boat.
This is our boys wearing ‘the green jersey’. It should be noted that the jersey they talk so much of has a bank logo printed on it.
Can’t wait to see that bloated behemoth, the ESB, being carved up by shareholders, and the €100k p/a semi-skilled union workers having to settle for a real world wage. Been a long time coming.
what a silly comment. you obviously read the herald or the mail on a regular basis.
As much as it surprises me to say it, but it seems that Fianna Fáil are telling the truth about what the Memo of Understanding says. In fact, there was no agreement to sell State Assets and consequently no reference to proceeds of sale. Herewith the relevant extract:
Building on the forthcoming report of the Review Group on State Assets & Liabilities the government will undertake an independent assessment of the electricity and gas sectors with a view to enhancing their efficiency. State authorities will consult with the Commission Services on the results of this assessment with a view to setting appropriate targets for the possible privatisation of state-owned assets.
We wont see a penny of it…
Exactly jumbo. Not one cent. The bond holders (junior) in Anglo will though. Keep them going for a couple of months.
Some of it’s being invested in job creation. Or were you hoping for a cheque in the post?
The government wont go near the E S B as the unions there would not play ball and could deter any potential buyer by making strike noises.The forests of ireland just grow away quietly and wont say a word about being sold off.
The Aer Lingus share sell off is not a major problem.So its the usual M O tackle those of least resistance.
Short term gain for long term pain!
Coillte, sell hundreds of acres of irish land, potentially to foreign investors. This for me is the most worrying part.
Look, I don’t care what anyone thinks, I am with FG on this. As I said before it’s not states job to employ people.
They say that 1 third of the money raised will go to job creation, but the question’s I have is where in the name of
god are they going to create these jobs from.
And what parts of Bord Gais and ESB will be sold and to who exactly.
But the bigger question is will it lead to higher bills for everyone ???
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