When this government privatised Irish National Petroleum – Ireland’s only oil refinery at Whitegate County Cork they sold it for €47 million. Now its current owners ConocoPhilips have put the refinery up for sale for €380 million. If the sale goes ahead, they will have made an 800% return on their original investment in only six years!

These figures don’t include the huge profits they have made in the meantime. In 2005 the refinery made a profit of €36.2 million, just €10 million short of what ConocoPhilips paid for it.

The example of Whitegate Refinery exposes the farce of privatisation. Just like the privatisations of Telecom and Aer Lingus the result is the Irish taxpayer is ripped off and wealthy investors make huge profits. Instead of this money going to multimillionaire and billionaire shareholders it could have been a source of funding to support the beleaguered health service over the last six years and for many more years into the future.