ABSTRACT
While privatisation was rampant in Thatcher’s Britain when Ireland’s Postal and Telecommunications Services Act 1983 was adopted, union pressures ensured that Bord Telecom Eireann remained a State-controlled monopoly enjoying special and exclusive rights. Only the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs could hold shares in the company throughout the 1980s. Sections 8 and 10 of the Telecommunications (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1996 (the Telecommunications Act 1996) removed the prohibition on private investment in the incumbent which in turn facilitated the acquisition by KPN/Telia of an equity shareholding in the company. The relevant Minister, however, retained a majority of seven directors on the 12-member board of directors until the company was fully privatised.
