Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

The European authorities and the IMF require the sale of State assets as part of the programme. I am sure the Deputy is au fait with the debate in Greece and Portugal. One could see the difficulty in Greece when the troika visited Athens and insisted on a very large privatisation programme. There was no similar outcry in Portugal but there was a requirement for a very significant sale of state assets there also.

The Government, which supports the sale of non-strategic State assets, has put the only figure on the table and that is in the programme for Government. We said we would sell non-strategic State assets to the value of €2 billion. We know from informal suggestions from the troika that it regards that as a modest initiative but it has not nominated a higher figure. These issues will be thrashed out in the discussions starting next week.

In terms of the proceeds of the sale of assets, it would be our preference to use the proceeds for a stimulus package to create jobs in the economy through the provision of modern infrastructure.

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