Will the Taoiseach acknowledge that he bears responsibility for this display of greed when he sanctioned the policy of privatisation that led to the sale of this public asset? The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform cannot restrain himself, but he will have to listen to what ordinary people are saying.

A question, please, Deputy.

I am getting to that, but I am being distracted as I look across the floor of the House.

The Deputy has only a minute to make his point.

We should bring in one of those padded cells the Minister is getting rid of to restrain him on occasions such as this. We would need straps as well in his case.

The less the Deputy says about padded cells the better.

Allow the Deputy to continue without interruption.

Is it the intention of the Government to continue with the privatisation of crucial public assets, such as Aer Lingus, so that they too can go on to service the inflated greed of those who wish to get their tentacles around them? Can we hope that, in the quiet of the seasonal break as the Taoiseach tends his hanging baskets or munches on mince pies, the Government will resolve to give up its auld sins and quit pandering especially to the private greed of that narrow sector of society who wants to get its hands on crucial public assets to make a killing rather than to serve the public interest?

When I listen to Deputy Higgins, I think back to the Soviet leaders in the bad old days when they brought in all those rules and followed all those policies, but they had five or six of the largest cars in the world. They always showed great care and regard for people.

With regard to privatisation, the policy of the Government is to deal with relevant issues on a case by case basis and to discuss them with the trade union movement, organised labour and the workforce generally, regardless of whether its members are members of a union. We will discuss such issues to ascertain the strategic interests of the company concerned, taking into account the public good, the welfare of the staff and the strategic alliances of the company. There is not an ideological reason for such an approach. We privatised companies in recent years that were broken, bust and on the road to closing down and we also privatised companies that were of good value and use. We will continue on that basis. There are no specific proposals as of yet, but we will continue with that policy. The workforce, unions and organised labour want the Government to continue with it and there is no reason other than that. I have already dealt with Eircom.