Labour is ignoring Fine Gael's strong hints at privatisation, according to the Fianna Fail deputy leader Ms Mary O'Rourke.
"Labour are standing idly by while Minister Dukes draws up plans for the privatisation of Aer Lingus, in which we invested £175 million," she said yesterday.
"Labour had nothing to say about a bigger stakeholding for the workers of Telecom when part of it was sold off cheaply to foreign banks. The ESB have seen no action even on the 5 per cent stake holding that they were promised."
Labour, she said, had a defensive "head in the sand" approach to the development of state companies. While Fianna Fail would not let workers in these companies down, "a new Rainbow, in which the balance of power might have shifted more from Labour to Fine Gael, will provide very little effective protection to semistate workers."