Does anyone think Deleveraging (selling of State assets) will save Ireland?

[Whatuwant2007]

Can the selling of state assets (Bord Gais, ESB, RTE, hospitals etc) save Ireland and the national debt problem?

I have my doubts. What price would we get for them in the middle of a recession. I'd be surprised if we got more than 600 million for RTE, and the same or a smaller amount for Bord Gais, and next to nothing for the Aer Lingus holding. We might be able to get 1 billion for the ESB, but i'd imagine the state wants to hold onto this....

Why do Fine Gael (and some others - e.g. CIF) think this will solve our problems? They want to nationalise the Banks and then privatise other state assets...

Surely it makes more sense to hold onto them and then eventually sell them on when they might be worth something (and banks are willing to lend to people to actually buy them).

[meriwether2]

In the meantime, as we hold on to our assets so we can sell them when we dont need to, what should we do to keep the ship afloat?

[X-ray]

Great sell them off to the mates in a recession, are we not already doing that with some of the finest army barracks in the country?

Sell them to who? Hospitals?

Sell the Dail and put them in citywest.

RTE? no public broadcaster? is this the price they pay for the bye election?

Sell the banks.

[Whatuwant2007]

In the meantime, as we hold on to our assets so we can sell them when we dont need to, what should we do to keep the ship afloat?

cut spending!!!

[FutureTaoiseach]

The main benefit would be in terms of reducing the spend on public-sector pay, which is costing us 20 billion this year. In particular, if we went down the Dutch road of hospital-privatisation we would save billions. And remember that the WHO rates their health service as the best in the world.

[BodyofEvidence]

no. we need far more than we could sell even if we started sellign off whole counties.

[Eye of Angkor]

A fire sale of infrastructural assets would be self defeating, even if the timing was better. Has anyone learnt anything from eircom?

The reorganisation of the health sector is an entirely different matter and there is much to be said for a system similar to that operating on the Continent.

[Whatuwant2007]

no. we need far more than we could sell even if we started sellign off whole counties.

I agree... thoughts of 20 billion this year, and god knows how much in years to come.... are we going to have to sell off Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford and Wicklow to pay for it....


Crazy idea.... hold onto as much as possible and when the tide turns then sell if u want.... (and use the higher price to pay off debt)

[grassroots]

The main benefit would be in terms of reducing the spend on public-sector pay, which is costing us 20 billion this year. In particular, if we went down the Dutch road of hospital-privatisation we would save billions. And remember that the WHO rates their health service as the best in the world.

Fair point. If you go down the road of allowing the money follow the patient, then hospitals should probably be allowed the flexibility to respond accordingly. This might imply local rather than central management. In turn this could have drastic results. A wll run local hospital could get more money than an inefficient monolith.

However, we could never have a health service run for the people could we. It has to be run for the doctors and the unions.

[X-ray]

The main benefit would be in terms of reducing the spend on public-sector pay, which is costing us 20 billion this year. In particular, if we went down the Dutch road of hospital-privatisation we would save billions. And remember that the WHO rates their health service as the best in the world.

Yes but that is not something that can happen in six months. The state would actually need to have proper ways of measuring standards etc and how they are going to pay these hospitals. I dont think that model saved the Dutch any money, it just gave them a much improved service for the same money. Its an all or nothing deal and would probably require front loaded spending to bring about.
You will still be paying for healthcare at the end of it and still running AEs etc as the Dutch do. I am not saying dont do it, just dont do it partially or for the wrong reasons. "selling" the hospitals to raise money is not what they did. Also we dont actually own many of the hospitals or schools.