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

There are some matters that are for the competence of an individual Minister, such as the Minister for Finance, and there are other matters that are for the competence of the Government.

It is the job of the Parliament to hold Governments accountable, but the Parliament usually does not exercise executive functions along the lines the Deputy has suggested and I have not seen anything in the new reform programme for this Dáil that indicates that the Parliament is going to exercise an executive function. The Deputy is wrong in his analysis of what happened. We kept the matter under review and the banks are now functioning well. They are almost back to normality. They are quite profitable and valuable, but I have no intention of selling the shares until I am convinced we will get best value for the taxpayer. However, there is value in the banks and it is a question of when and how we will realise it. What I have indicated so far as a matter of policy is that the first step will be an IPO of 25% of AIB, but market conditions are not right. If we were to do it in the last quarter of this year, we would need to take steps now that the market might see as irrevocable. Therefore, it will be the first half of next year before an opportunity arises.

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