Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Subsection (3) does not give a Minister more powers in respect of the sale of State assets than he or she already has. It provides him or her with a new means of acquiring or disposing of an asset and allows him or her to ask that NewERA take charge of the asset or act on behalf of the asset. For this reason, I do not agree with the suggestion that State assets can be sold off willy-nilly by Ministers. The best approach I could take at this stage would be to discuss the point with officials in my Department and other Departments and revert to the Deputy on Report Stage with clarification of the circumstances in which the bodies in question can be disposed of.