Socialist Party strategy to nationalise industries a threat to 160,000 jobs – FF
Published on: 23 November 2014
Fianna Fáil spokesperson on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Dara Calleary TD has described as extraordinary a proposal from the Socialist Party that Dell and other multi-national firms operating in Ireland would be taken in to public ownership.
Socialist Party TD Ruth Coppinger was speaking during a debate on Saturday View with Brian Dowling on RTE Radio 1. During a discussion on economic policy Deputy Coppinger, the Socialist Party TD for Dublin West, stated that it was her belief that multinational firms should be taken over by the State. Deputy Coppinger made specific reference to Dell which employs 2,500 people in Ireland between its sites in Limerick and Cherrywood in Dublin.
Deputy Calleary commented, “Foreign direct investment has been one of the economic success stories in Ireland. 160,000 people are employed in industries all over the country with a very substantial number in Deputy Coppinger’s constituency. It will come as news to thousands of employees that her party is willing to take such a cavalier attitude with their jobs. While the Socialist Party has latched on to opposition to water charges as a popular cause with which to build support, their core economic strategy is based on an utterly unrealistic assumption that all major industries can be controlled by the State.
“Most people now accept that a modern economy needs a partnership approach between public and private enterprise. The merest hint that such a policy could be implemented by government would see a flight of companies from the State. However the Socialist Party appears content to put tens of thousands of jobs at risk to pursue a utopian economic model which has failed anywhere it has been tried.
“Ireland has fought very hard to build a reputation as a country with a welcoming climate for multinational firms. This has resulted in thousands of direct and indirect jobs and huge benefits to the state in terms of revenue from payroll and other taxes. As parties like the Socialists and the various other guises under which they operate, get closer to power it is vitally important that we carefully study what impact the implementation of their policies would have. While there is a broad consensus across parties as to the unfairness of water charges, there will be far less support for the type of radicalism offered by the Socialist Party in relation to nationalising major industries. Anyone considering voting for them needs to remember that they will be supporting a much wider political agenda including policies that would never gain traction if considered on their own merits”.