The general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has criticised plans to sell off part of the ESB. David Begg has instead urged the establishment of a state holding company for state assets.
Mr Begg said the creative solution would be to form a holding company into which assets including the semi-state companies would be put.
He said shares in the overall state holding company could be sold to raise money without negatively affecting any of the companies individually.
Mr Begg said it was important to handle the issue in a way that was least damaging for country and potentially beneficial in terms of employment. He said the state holding company could also be used as a job creation vehicle, which would not be a million miles from the proposals in Fine Gael's NewEra policy document.
ESB won't be broken up - Gilmore
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has said that no decision has yet been taken on what percentage share of the ESB will be sold off, but that it will be a minority share.
The Tánaiste was responding to Fianna Fail's Eamon O'Cuiv, who asked if it could be taken that up 49% of the ESB could be sold off and the company broken up.
The Tánaiste gave a commitment that the ESB would not be broken up and would remain as a single entity.
Mr Gilmore also denied reports that the state's 25% share in Aer Lingus is to be sold off. He said no such decision had been taken by Cabinet.
Meanwhile, the Regional Secretary of the UNITE trade union - which represents most employees at the ESB - has said he is confident his members will vote for strike action if the Government goes ahead with selling a minority stake in the company.
The union said yesterday it would ballot for industrial action.
Jimmy Kelly of UNITE said his union did not accept that the ESB had to be included in the sale of state assets under the terms of the EU/IMF rescue package.
He also denied that ESB workers are spoilt, adding they wanted to be treated with respect and have their salaries protected.
