Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for Finance, on behalf of the State, has concluded negotiations on the sale and redemption of preference shares in Bank of Ireland. This transaction will see the State recouping a premium on the initial €1.837 billion investment. A press release was issued this morning to mark the start of the sale process. The sale and redemption processes are currently under way and the exact return to the State will depend on the outcome of the two separate capital market book-build exercises that form part of these processes. As the process is currently under way, I am limited in what I can say at present. However, I am sure that when the process is concluded, the Minister for Finance will come to the House and update Members fully.

The process involves the sale of €1.3 billion of the preference shares to private investors and the redemption of €537 million of the preference shares, which will be financed by the bank through the placing of new equity. The successful conclusion of this transaction will see the State exiting its €1.837 billion preference shares held in Bank of Ireland at a profit, build further confidence in Ireland's recovery and strengthen our return to normal market funding. I acknowledge the welcome that Deputy Donnelly has given to that process.

Regarding the ongoing engagement between banks and individual borrowers and families with mortgage difficulties who are seeking a way out, the Central Bank has set targets for each of the banks to conclude agreements with those in mortgage distress. We have put a range of measures in place, including new legislation providing for the personal insolvency service and non-judicial debt settlement arrangements. We have also made it very clear to all of the banks that we want to see a conclusion brought to the mortgage distress and debt difficulties that many families are in. That must be done, as I have said repeatedly, on a case by case basis. We continue to engage with the banks, through the Central Bank, on what they are doing. We will continue to have that engagement with them because we want to see families lifted out from beneath the burden of debt. That is a process that we want to see accelerated. We want to see all of the banks engaged in it. No individual bank should be holding back or taking an approach which is less than one of full engagement.

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