O'Rourke insists on CIE selling land

CIE will be told today by the Minister for Public Enterprise that she is adamant that its unused land and property should be sold.

Mrs O'Rourke's strong stance conflicts with the view of those within CIE who believe that the potential of such land can best be realised by setting up joint ventures with the private sector. The Minister said yesterday she would not interfere with ventures already in existence, such as CIE's involvement in the Dublin docklands site earmarked for the National Convention Centre.

But she said all other land not required for public transport purposes should be sold to raise funds for a £1 billion investment programme.

Mrs O'Rourke will meet the chairman of CIE, Mr Brian Joyce, today to request a five-year rolling programme of "asset realisation", which could raise about half the money required for investment in trains, DART, Luas and buses.

Her stance was markedly different from that of a CIE spokesman, who said the company could benefit from involvement in other commercial ventures such as that at Heuston Station, which has been refurbished with the involvement of private retailers.

"Adopting the approach that you have to sell everything and let the added value go to someone else, that is something we would be trying to avoid," he added.

The spokesman stressed that the company's view was entirely in accord with those expressed by Mrs O'Rourke on RTE's News at One programme in which she referred to CIE both selling land and entering into "exciting property arrangements".

However, the Minister told The Irish Times later that, far from backing down on her proposal that land be sold, she was "even more emphatic" in her view that land not required should be sold for "a good market price". She said she did not believe CIE should be "going around the country entering into joint ventures with every bit of property they have."

The Minister will ask for a full inventory of CIE's properties at today's meeting with Mr Joyce.

In a statement, the CIE trade union group said that while agreeing that land of no further use to CIE should be used in the best interests of the company's future, "CIE workers are not prepared to stand by and watch the assets of the company sold off for speculation while they are being called on to reduce costs by agreeing to reductions in their income".