This book analyzes privatization in Ireland, a European economy that has experienced rapidly changing fortunes over the last thirty years. It examines the effects of privatization in terms of corporate performance, public finances and the distributional aspects of privatization including the impact on employment and share ownership.

A government by the people and for the people is an ideal of Irish politics. But it is fast disappearing as corporations take more control. The Corporate Takeover of Ireland examines the effects corporations have on Irish life and shows how democratic decision making has been subverted by money. For example: --- Efforts to ban advertising to children and to restrict promotion of alcohol have been prevented by large global corporations. --- Irish universities are increasingly run on the model of a corporation and their research work is being put at the service of major pharmaceutical firms --- A new medical apartheid is being created in health as huge US health corporations stand ready to move into the private healthcare market. --- Waste collection is no longer organized as a public service but is being turned into big business. --- State enterprises such as Aer Lingus have been handed over to private investors. The Corporate Takeover of Ireland is based on interviews with key participants and is supplemented with documentary information. New material challenges arguments for privatization/de-regulation in Ireland, suggests that public resources are being squandered on 'corporate welfare, ' and questions the notion that the consumer has gained from the changes. The book, written in a highly accessible style, calls for a new movement of resistance that will put people before profit and bring about more genuine democracy