Madam, - Your recent series of articles on "beating the downturn" shows that, depressingly, privatisation of State assets is still for some reason seen by some of our great and good as good business. This flies in the face of clear evidence both here and abroad.
In Britain, for example, rail services are costing the Exchequer more after privatisation than under Government ownership and the rail network has had to be stealthily renationalised. In Ireland we are also facing the real cost of making a quick buck by selling national assets. The short-term gain of selling Eircom, for example, has been more than offset by a loss of international competitiveness with a broadband network that is laughable compared with other Western European countries.
It has been shown time and again that private capital cannot provide the levels of investment required to maintain and upgrade highly complex and expensive state services. To insist to the contrary, as some of Ireland's business leaders do, shows a level of wilful blindness that would not be tolerated in their own highly competitive environments. - Yours, etc,
JOHN COTTER, Abbey Drive, Ferrybank, Waterford.