This article is from page 18 of the 2012-02-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 18 JPG
CLARE Fine Gael backbencher Pat Breen yesterday questioned the credentials of Fianna Fáil when it comes to their recent protestations regarding the Government’s programme of asset disposal.
The West Clare TD said that concerns by members of the Fianna Fáil party, particularily concerning the workers in Moneypoint and Ardnacrusha, as “ringing very hollow”.
“It was Fianna Fáil who engaged Dermot McCarthy in July 2010 to undertake a review to consider the potential for the sale of state assets, including Commercial State Bodies, so any protestations now about this Government’s programme of asset disposal by Fianna Fail rings very hollow,” he said. “Our Government has reached an agreement on an asset disposal programme, as required under the EU/IMF Programme and provided for in our Programme for Government. The targeted proceeds from the programme is € 3 billion; and we have secured agreement from the Troika that a third of this € 3 billion can be reinvested into the economy to stimulate growth and jobs.
“The sale of a minority stake in the ESB will not now go ahead and the Government is committed to the retention of the ESB as a vertically integrated utility in State ownership, in spite of our decision to dispose of some of its non-strategic assets.”
“Both Ardnacrusha and Moneypoint are strategic power generating stations here in the County Clare. Ardnacrusha was the ESB’s first power station, opening in 1929, and today it continues to provide two per cent of the ESB’s total capacity.
“Moneypoint is one of the largest employers in West Clare, employ- ing up to 600 people depending on the number of contractors on site at any one time. The entire economy in West Clare benefits from having the ESB’s largest generating station based in the West.
“The workers live in Kilrush and the surrounding areas and this has a knock-on beneficial affect for local businesses and is helping to keep jobs in West Clare. Following the oil crisis in the 1970s, the generating station at Moneypoint was built in order to increase the level of ESB output and ensure that the country could become less reliant on oil imports.”