The proposed sale of Bord Gais Energy by the government has been described by Workers Party
Councillor Ted Tynan as an act of treason.
Cllr. Tynan said the decision
was a total capitulation by the Labour Party to Fine Gael’s Thatcherite economic policies and showed that Labour
had abandoned any pretence of public ownership of Ireland’s State companies.
“It is interesting”, said Cllr. Tynan
“that Minister Pat Rabbitte, who was during the 1970s a leading member
of the Resources Protection Campaign, is now the minister who will deliver Bord Gais Energy into the hands of UK
based Centrica, a company with a reputation for regularly hiking energy prices in order to make huge profits.
Councillor Tynan said the government’s
claim that some of the money earned from the sale would be used for job creation only added insult to injury. “Up to now”, he said , “the main form of "job creation" that the coalition has
engaged in has been handing over subsidies to gombeen men to take people on such mickey mouse schemes as Job Bridge. These
schemes do not create real jobs, but merely massage the unemployment figures to make them look better than they really are”.
He said the decision confirmed
the Worker's Party's worst fears in regard to the future of Irish Water which is owned by Bord Gais. “It
can only be a matter of time before the new water company too is privatised and Irish citizens will become "customers" of
yet another multinational to buy back natural resources which they themselves own but have been robbed of by the
treachery of the present government". said Cllr. Tynan.
Issued 13th December 2013
