Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I should have mentioned it. Deputy Higgins is aware the original requirement for the troika was to use all of the proceeds from the sale of State assets to retire debt. I have spent considerable weeks and months trying to change this view with some success. After much negotiation the agreement was that 50% of the take could be used directly for job creation and would be rolled into the stimulus package. It will be part of the variety of elements we will use, including the new Irish strategic investment fund which will be created when we transfer the €6.4 billion from the National Pensions Preserve Fund into the new investment vehicle for Ireland. While it was originally agreed the balance of the money would be used to retire debt, after further interaction with me the troika has agreed for it to be used as a backstop in the first instance. It will eventually be used to pay down debt, but in the first instance it can be used as a backdrop to leverage funding including for public-private partnerships, because one of the problems we have had in getting these off the ground is no triple A rated bank in Ireland to partner banks such as the European Investment Bank. Other countries have used funds, either asset sale funds or structural funds, as a backstop. This is the type of model we are using. In the short term, all of the money from the sale of State assets in one form or another will be used in job creation.

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