The McCarthy group on State assets has made a number of recommendations on the future of the ESB and Bord Gáis.
It says the ESB's energy supply and electricity distribution businesses, power generation assets, as well as its international and consulting businesses, should be sold as a single entity.
It says the electricity transmission grid, including the system it has bought in Northern Ireland should be transferred to EirGrid and kept in public ownership.
The report says that if the ESB stays in public ownership, however, all of its overseas interests should be sold off. It also says the ESB should be required to sell off further generating capacity in Ireland.
On Bord Gáis, it says the company's transmission and interconnector assets should stay in State ownership, but the remaining businesses should be privatised as a single entity. The report also says Bord na Móna should be sold off, including peat extraction rights but not ownership of the peat lands.
It says State-owned ports, including Rosslare, should be restructured into several multi-port authorities, built around Dublin, Cork and Shannon Foynes. After this step, privatisation of 'some or all' of the ports should be looked at.
The report says the State should start selling off Coillte's forestry and non-forestry assets, but not its forest land. It says unforested land which Coillte does not need should also be sold.
The group says the State should sell its 25% stake in Aer Lingus 'as soon as it is opportune', while the DAA should sell off its overseas businesses in order to reduce its debt. In due course, the report says, privatisation of the airports should be considered.
But the report says that, regardless of ownership, regulatory arrangements need to be reviewed, and the scope for political intervention in investment decisions curtailed.
It does not believe any An Post assets should be sold at the moment, but recommends that the granting of a new seven-year licence to run the National Lottery be the subject of an open competition.
The report says privatisation of Dublin Bus should be considered, but only after the Government has decided on a model for competition in the city's bus market. It says CIE's tours business, Expressway services and other bus businesses competing with private operators should be sold. The group says the amount of money invested in further transport projects should be 'severely constrained'.
On RTÉ, the report says the 7% of the licence fee which currently goes to the Broadcasting Fund should be increased substantially. It says networks business RTENL should be sold as a regulated entity, with safeguards put in place to ensure its availability to the State in emergencies.
The report says RTÉ's provision of services to TG4 should be done on a commercial basis, and paid for by TG4 from its own revenue. Exchequer support for each organisation should then be adjusted to take account of this.
The McCarthy group calls for the sale of the National Stud. It says Horse Racing Ireland's racecourse interests, Bord na gCon's interests in greyhound tracks and both organisations' Tote interests should be sold if commercially satisfactory terms are available.
The report says that if the granting of licences, rights or quotas gives any party substantial market rights, such a process should involve a transparent auction.
The report says the Department of Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation should become the department responsible for all economic regulatory bodies. It calls for a single regulator for the broadcasting and telecoms - including postal - industries, and recommends that the Health Insurance Authority be absorbed into the Financial Regulator.
The group urges that any proposed new water body should be regulated through an expansion of the Commission for Energy Regulation, and not through 'yet another' regulator.
