Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Business news channels like Bloomberg give an opportunity to get the Irish story out there and put our message across, which is otherwise difficult to do. I try to affect market sentiment in the interviews I do. The point I wanted to underline is that the State does not have a long-term interest in holding State banks and our intention is to restore them to the private sector in due course. When I was asked when that will be done, I replied that we will test the market in due course.

The message is not so much that we are about to sell the banks; it is that the policy is that we will not continue with State banks in the medium term. We will get private investors in. Of course there are concerns, and the Deputy is right; I would like to have more competition in the banking sector in Ireland. I also think that in Ireland and across Europe, banks will not be able to provide the liquidity that the European economies need. We will have to move more towards an American model, where there are non-bank sources of funding for investment and for expanding the economy.

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