In July 1999 the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, told the Seanad she was working on a book about the privatisation of Telecom Eireann. "Despite the fact that the Taoiseach said we must not write books about our time in Government, I intend to write a book about Telecom. I am writing about Telecom at the moment while the subject is fresh in my mind."
It would be fascinating to see the manuscript and judge how the budding author manages the tricky transition from the dashing tale of triumph that she was obviously planning to the mixture of tragedy and farce that has unfolded.
As we face into a decisive year for the future of public enterprise in Ireland, it is surely timely to remember what the privatisation of Telecom (now Eircom) was supposed to achieve and to reflect on what has actually happened. Because almost all the focus has been on the slide in the value of Eircom shares, the broader significance of what has occurred is easily missed. We have just seen a public policy disaster that is about to be repeated.
At last year's volcanic a.g.m., the Independent TD for Dublin Central, Tony Gregory, said Eircom was the first and only company in which he had ever bought shares because he thought it would be "a people's company with no fat cats". I knew exactly what he meant because the same was true for me. Tony Gregory and I and thousands of other people who thought we were taking part in a form of economic democracy were, in hindsight, guilty of gross naivety. But we were also misled.
In May 1999, Mary O'Rourke addressed the annual conference of the Communication Workers' Union. Inevitably, given the nature of the audience, the main subject of her speech was the forthcoming privatisation of Telecom. She set out a very clear vision of the overall policy objective of the Initial Public Offering (IPO) or flotation. Her speech is worth quoting at some length:
"One of the objectives of the IPO that I mentioned earlier is that it should promote wider share ownership. It is my firm intention that there should be a significant tranche of the shares available to the citizens. This is a personal objective of mine and one I know that my Government colleagues share. It is entirely appropriate that the public reap the benefits of this success, the main benefit being the opportunity to be part of the future of the company. Through a widespread shareholding the citizens, in conjunction with the employees, will be able to share in the successes of the company and to have a say in its development over the coming years.
"This in my view is the essence of what being a public company means: a company which is literally owned by the people through the widest possible share ownership."
The message from the Oireachtas debates which preceded privatisation was the same: this would not be a case of fat cats getting their grubby paws on public assets.
It could hardly be clearer. The Government's aim was to create a telecoms company that would be "literally owned by the people" who would "have a say in its development over the coming years". There would be no carving up of State assets. There would be no fat cats. ("I have no time for fat cats," Mary O'Rourke assured us.) If that really was the aim, the Government has failed completely. In less than two years, it has become completely clear that not only will the people not own a State-wide telecoms company, but there will be no such company at all.
Eircom is being broken up. Its most profitable assets are being knocked down cheaply to a global multinational, Vodafone. The rest will be sold off for scrap. The fat cats are getting the cream and shareholding democracy is getting the bum's rush.
The only good thing about mistakes of this order is that something can be learned from them. There is, however, no evidence at all that Mary O'Rourke has even acknowledged the complete failure of her strategy for Eircom, let alone reflected on its meaning for future privatisations. The Government's decision a year ago to privatise Aer Lingus has not been reconsidered. Plans to float the ESB and Aer Rianta are in the air. And, in spite of the great railway disaster in Britain, the notion of privatising the railways has been slipped into Government policy.
Eighteen months ago, Mary O'Rourke informed the Seanad that "John Prescott told me if he had his way he would reverse the privatisation of British Rail", and in the context it was clear that she agreed with him. Less than a year later, she herself produced a policy document that prepares the ground for a slavish imitation of the Tories' maddest schemes, talking of "transferring ownership of the (rail) operating company to the private sector" and "franchising of the maintenance of the railway infrastructure".
Under the guise of ending monopolies and introducing competition, a huge asset-stripping operation is under way. Instead of efficient, competitive public companies with new forms of public ownership, we will be left, very shortly, with almost all of our key infrastructure in the hands of global profiteers.
fotoole@irish-times.ie
