Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that we will have some clarity on whether there are legislative bars or blocks on the disposal of the relevant State assets. However, the Minister of State explicitly stated that the Bill does not confer on the Minister any additional power. The legislation establishes the agency as the body that can, and most likely will, be used if a circumstance were to arise in which State assets were to be sold by the Minister. We can all read the legislation. The nub of the issue is that this can be done without recourse to a debate in the Dáil or Seanad. That is where I fundamentally disagree with the manner in which this has been established.

Requiring the approval of the Houses of the Oireachtas is one of the most basic protections we can put in place in respect of assets that have been built up with the sweat and labour of many Irish workers and through significant State investment. Decisions to sell off such assets to the private sector and any decision by a Minister to exercise the power to ask the agency to dispose of an asset warrant a debate in the Houses of the Oireachtas. This should be required in the Bill.