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

First of all, I do not believe the Irish banks require extra capital, but we would like to recover some of the capital that we had already invested in the recapitalisation in March and April 2011. We are pursuing a number of things in parallel, and the movements do not contradict each other. One way to get some of the money that we invested in 2011 back from European sources would be for a European institution to take some of the bank shares, and to give us money in lieu of those shares. That is obviously one model. Whether it is a sale to the private sector or some kind of retroactive recapitalisation, the value of the shares is very important. It is quite clear that as we manage our portfolio, enhancing the value of the shares is important, whichever route we pursue.

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