Fianna Fáil and Greens to deliver privatisation of An Post for the IMF?

A BILL to liberalise postal services opens the door to privatisation and the public being left with a postal service whose main interest is making a profit rather than delivering a service, Sinn Féin’s Martin Ferris TD has told the Dáil.

He warned that Ireland is going down the same path as Britain’s Royal Mail.

We need only look at what is happening in Britain at the moment when similar legislation to give effect to the EU directive was published, assurances were given that six day delivery and collection would be copper fastened.

Now, as the Government there is preparing to privatise the Royal Mail it has emerged that the provision of services will all be dependent on profit margins. In effect that will mean that if a postal company can prove that it is losing money then it will be able to downgrade its services and only operate profitable ones.

There are currently no plans to privatise An Post as a whole but this bill and the whole tenor of the EU liberalisation of postal and other public services will inevitably lead to not only the breaking up of the postal services but the cherry picking and selling off of its most profitable parts.

The Sinn Féin TD and spokesperson on Workers’ Rights said it is clear that the privatisation of state assets is going to be part of the IMF/EU bail-out for the banks. Finance Minister Brian Lenihan told me that privatisation of state assets has been discussed as part of the bail-out.

Martin Ferris TD

The Sinn Féin TD said:

We need much harder guarantees that An Post will not be asset stripped and that the people of this state are not left with a poorer and more expensive service; that rural communities are not left in a situation where postal collection and deliveries do not take place six days a week.

If such guarantees are not built into this bill by way of amendment, then Sinn Féin will be voting against it.

We will be doing so in order to protect the jobs of postal workers and the excellent service that An Post currently provides throughout this state.

We will also be opposing it because we do not believe public companies that have been built over generations ought to be stripped down, torn apart and sold off to privateers.

We certainly do not support the selling off of any state company in order to comply with the terms of the IMF/EU bail-out for the failed bankers and speculators, some of whom no doubt will be joining the former Taoiseach in companies ready to move in for the kill if and when they are sold off.