State-sponsored bodies of the Republic of Ireland

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A State-Sponsored Body is the name given in the Republic of Ireland to a state owned enterprise (or government owned corporation), that is to say, a commercial company which is benficially owned, either completely or majority, by the Irish Government. Each state-sponsored body has a sponsor Minister who acts as shareholder, either independently, or in conjunction with the Irish Minister for Finance, who may also be a shareholder. State-sponsored bodies are often popularly called semi-state companies, a misnomner, since they are all (mostly) fully owned by the state, in addition not all of them are actually companies. Less often they are referred to by the British term nationalised industry.

Contents

1 Statutory Corporations
2 Companies with the Government as shareholder

2.1 Promient subsidaries of State-Sponsored Bodies

3 Privatisations

3.1 List of privatised State-Sponsored Bodies

4 See also

Statutory Corporations

State-sponsored bodies may be organised as statutory corporations, meaning that they are officially non-profit and do not formally have shareholders, but are a board appointed by the sponsor Minister. Corporations of this type include:

Córas Iompair Éireann (Irish Transport Company)
Electricity Supply Board
Radio Telefís Éireann (Radio and Television of Ireland)
Voluntary Health Insurance Board (Vhi Healthcare)
Bord Gáis Éireann (Irish Gas Board)
Horse Racing Ireland

The statutory corporation form of governance has fallen out of favour recently, with it being seen as less transparent and less commercially free than the limited company (see below). It is planned that at least two of the bodies above, VHI and RTÉ, will become limited companies in the near future. On 21 January 2006 The Irish Times reported that the ESB and BGE will also move to plc status. However the statutory corporation is the model proposed for the future independent TG4 (Telefis na Gaelige), so it has not been compeletely abandoned.

Companies with the Government as shareholder

Others may be organised as public limited companies or private limited companies. These are incorporated with the Companies Registration Office (Ireland) as companies, but their sole (or sometimes majority) shareholder is their sponsor minister. Some of these are exempt from the requirement to carry limited, teoranta, plc, or cpt as part of their company name. Examples include:

An Post (The Post Office).
Bord na Mona plc (The Peat Board)
Dublin Airport Authority plc
Aer Lingus Group plc. (Irish International Airlines)
Coillte Teoranta (The Irish Forestry Board Limited)
Dublin Port Company

Promient subsidaries of State-Sponsored Bodies

Companies which are subsidaries of state-sponsored bodies, but which enjoy a separate identiy and legal existence, include:

Subsidaries of Córas Iompair Éireann:

Iarnród Éireann - Irish Rail
Bus Éireann - Irish Bus
Dublin Bus - Bus Átha Cliath
Network Catering

Subsidaries of Dublin Airport Authority:

Great Southern Hotels
Aer Rianta International cpt

Subsidaries of An Post

Subsidiary of Radio Telefís Éireann:

TG4 (Serbhisi Telefis na Gaelige Teoranta) - planned to be statutory corporation in own right.

Subsidiary of Horse Racing Ireland

Tote Ireland Limited

Privatisations

Like many countries with extensive state owned sectors, the Irish Government has embarked on a programme of privatisations in recent years. Privatisations have always been controversial in Ireland. In 1991 the chief executive of Greencore was forced to resign immediately prior to the company's flotation when it was discovered he was a shareholder in a company which had been purchased by Irish Sugar prior to its flotation. However it was after the drop in the Eircom share price following the company's flotation that many became opposed to future privatisations. Nevertheless, it is planned to privatise Aer Lingus in the near future.

List of privatised State-Sponsored Bodies