SOLD:The Eircom Shares Saga

Sold - The Eircom Shares Saga is a cautionary and timely tale of how the hope and enthusiasm of the Telecom Éireann flotation in 1999 ended in disaster, piles of debt, and losses for the average citizens who dipped their toes into the stock market.

Live on RTE Player: www.rte.ie/player/movie/sold-the-eircom-shares-saga-s1-e1/232164904445

Over 500,000 people purchased shares in Telecom Éireann in 1999. Were you one of them?

 The documentary is an ensemble piece featuring characters from every walk of Irish life who all shared in what ultimately proved to be a collective economic folly in the summer of 1999, one with far reaching consequences for the state of telecommunications in Ireland in the twenty first century.

Contributors

It’s cast of characters come from those closest to the flotation, those in government, unions, the media who covered it, economists and commentators, and members of the public who lost (and in some cases gained) on the back of buying shares in Telecom Éireann.

It features former Minister of Public Enterprise Mary O’Rourke, former Former General Secretary of the CWU and chairman of the Telecom Éireann Employee Share Ownership Trust Con Scanlon, former Business Editor of The Sunday Independent Shane Ross, Former Chief Economist of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Paul Sweeney, Journalists and broadcasters Matt Cooper and Richard Curran, Economist Colm McCarthy, Business Editor of The Sunday Times Brian Carey and Former Secretary General of the Dept of Department of Communications, Energy, Marine and Natural Resources Brendan Tuohy.