Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 8 May 2014

Public Accounts Committee

2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2012
Chapter 2 - Government Debt
Finance Accounts 2012

12:25 pm

Mr. John Moran:

They are different. With Bank of Ireland, we have become something of a passive shareholder of 14%. We do not control the bank. Therefore, our decisions in that regard must relate to pricing and when it will be appropriate to sell the remaining shares. The slide shows a gap that we have identified between the amount of money we invested in the banks and how much we have in them currently in the form of share value, which has already recovered. The Government will need to exercise judgment about when to divest itself of an asset that could produce more income and help to close the value gap, but that is an investment decision. We continue to monitor the situation.