Government failures and privitisation

[PaulM]

I have been reflecting on the terrible things our government has done with state run companies. Here is my brief findings.

Eircom: We currently have the highest line rental in Europe (possibly the world). Our broadband take up is second last in the EU-15 only to Greece, some of the ascension states have better telecoms infrastructure than us. Eircom / the government will constantly highlight our successes in this area but it is all using statistics that suit the cause. I find it embarrasing that we are meant to be the "E-hub" of Europe and approximately 35% of our population can not get broadband from the national carrier. Compare that to the North where 99.9% can get broadband...

ESB: Since the deregulation of the electricity market electricity prices have shot up. In the past 5 years ESB have made 1.5bn profit (I think it is profit, maybe turnover). Meanwhile electricity prices have gone up every year and are set to do so again. Electricity is fundamental to businesses running. In one of the most expensive countries in the world, how this is going to help our global competitiveness or the average consumer?

My fear is that should any privitisation of any public transport go ahead, what sort of mess will happen then? I am not against privitisation of anything, I feel consumers generally benefit but under this government we have been the big losers of privitisation.

There are alternatives for most things. I have cable based broadband with an IP phone, no Eircom line and more benefits. Too techie for most yet but I pay considerably less per month than the average Eircom customer.

I am currently in the process of changing over to a renewable electricity provider. I'm not sure if there is much savings to be made but I will be doing my bit for the environment and getting away from ESB on principal.

The sad thing is, few people know of these alternatives and more are afraid to change. I think our public transport is pretty bad and needs improvement, I also thought Telecom Eireann were the worst phone company imaginable, I had not idea how much worse it could get.