Wholesale privatisation, including airports, State-owned banks, public transport and the Great Southern Hotel group, was advocated by the former party leader, Mr Des O'Malley.
"Privatisation is a worldwide phenomenon. Facile, uninformed comment by Irish commentators identifies it only with a particular strand of British politics," he told delegates. "Serious examples of successful privatisation such as the Dairy Disposal Company, Irish Steel, Irish Sugar and B & I show the dynamic which has turned annual losses into healthy profits, released entrepreneurial talents and secured jobs."
We should sell off at once the various small banks still owned by the State, he said, rather than further frustrate potential buyers with more delays. "The successes of the management and staff of Great Southern Hotels should allow them to buy the company rather than have it as an appendage to either the State railway or airport monopolies. If Aer Lingus is to play any significant role in the deregulated European aviation market, it must leave public ownership."
He said the poor service and cost overruns on mainline signalling and on the Luas raised yet again the question of why we persisted with CIE as a nationalised transport monopoly. "There must be competition. There must be value for money.
"The era of monopolistic State enterprise ended a long time ago. We should not persist with flogging this particular dead horse."
Mr O'Malley said the deregulation of air travel should now lead to deregulation of airports. "Cork and Shannon should be locally managed. Private finance should be sought to develop them. There should be separate competing terminals at all main airports," he said, speaking during a conference session on the economy called "Sharing our Success".
On private health insurance, he was critical of the risk equalisation mechanism which requires BUPA to make payments to the VHI based on the age profile of each company's subscribers. Mr O'Malley said this was a "draconian regime" and a serious deterrent to new entry to that market.
The Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Mr Bobby Molloy, said new data showed there had been a "dramatic moderation" in the rate of increase in average house prices. Increases in the third quarter were well down on figures for the previous quarter.
"For the second time this year the quarterly prices for new houses in Dublin have decreased, this time by 2.3 per cent, while the increase nationally was just 1.2 per cent. Price increases for second-hand houses are also moderating, with increases of 2.3 per cent in Dublin and 4 per cent nationally in the third quarter."