Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I really have nothing more to add for Deputy McDonald. I believe I have answered Deputy Fleming's questions and I have told the committee of the mechanism that I intend to pursue. I will not be in a position to come back within one month of the enactment of the legislation because by then we will not have the licence floated, we will not know who is interested and we will not have the deal done. Until we have that I will not be in a position to know the quantum of money I have. I will happily come back later and I have an open mind on it. I realise Deputy Fleming in particular is interested in the issue. Others might have a view as well but I have no wish to put it somewhere that does not accrue the best money. We are short of resources at the moment. Deputies might have ideas in that regard and I am willing to listen to them. However, I guarantee that it is my intention to have a significant sum of money, sufficient to build the national children's hospital, ring-fenced for that purpose. That is as much as I need to say about it.

Deputy Boyd Barrett asked a general question about my dealings with the troika. I have no wish to open a row with Deputy Fleming, who may have a point of contention in this regard. However, from the outset, the troika conveyed to us the understanding it had with the previous Administration that there was to be a significant sale of State assets and all moneys from the sale of State assets was to be used to pay down debt simpliciter. We engaged with the troika on the basis that this was unacceptable. We stated we would sell up to €3 billion of State assets excluding the national lottery. That was to be ring-fenced separately and was never put into this process. Following the initial argument we had and won we agreed half of the money was to be re-invested in job creation and the other half used to write down debt.

I re-engaged after that because one of the problems that arose especially in securing public private partnerships was back-stop money. To secure money from the European Investment Bank we needed to have a backstop from an Irish bank in normal circumstances. However, the governance structure of the European Investment Bank and other similar funding agencies require the backstop to be a AAA-rated resource of money. Of course the Irish banks were not AAA-rated. Other countries used some other resources. Some countries have used Cohesion Fund resources as the backstop to draw down European Investment Bank money.

I posited that we could use some of the resources of the sale of State assets to back-stop money that we could invest in job creation here and that was accepted. That is how the bulk of moneys from State assets sales will be treated, for example, in the case of the generating elements of Bord Gáis Éireann and probably some of the offshore generating capacity of ESB. However, we have always treated this licence separately and not as a State asset. That is why I have made the distinction. This was always a specific and unique proposal to find the capital wherewithal to build the national children's hospital and that is what I intend it to be.