Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State's reply. It is reasonable to say that given the profile of the State-sponsored bodies and agencies under the aegis of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation none of them are appropriate for privatisation as they are not commercial entities in any real sense. I was curious to ask this question for many reasons.

It is not that long ago that the Minister, Deputy O'Keeffe, issued a statement which was critical of Fine Gael's NewEra policy on the basis that we were proposing privatisations - that is not what we were doing - and did not know how much this would raise. The Government has since then announced its intention to privatise the VHI. Will the Minister of State agree that the same applies? Is not now an inappropriate time to privatise the VHI and how much does the Minister believe will be raised from this sale? Does the Minister stand over his remarks in regard to Fine Gael's privatisation policies?

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