Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I thank the Deputy for his questions. The Deputy does not expect me to quantify the value I expect from each item or company we put up for sale. However, I wish to give as much detail as I can to the Deputy. Subsequent to the decision made by the Government last September we set up two parallel processes. The first was to establish what regulatory and other difficulties were presented by the decision made originally on a minority shareholding sale in a vertically integrated ESB. That process was carried out by my Department and the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. The parallel process involved the valuation of other State companies. This was carried out by the NewERA entity, drawing on the expertise of the NewERA entity along with the National Treasury Management Agency. They have put a tentative value on them. It cannot be all that completely precise until we test the markets.

The Deputy referred to a tendering process. We have not held a tendering process. Therefore, we do not know the true value. However, I would expect to get a very good price for the State for the energy component of Bord Gáis Éireann, BGE. The idea, and this is what attracted the troika and helped us in our negotiations, is that this will contribute in two ways to our economic growth. Not only will we get one third of the proceeds to invest in the productive sector of the economy, but it will also create competition within the energy market, because BGE is the nucleus of an alternative player that will be a competitor for a vertically integrated ESB which will remain a State company.

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