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

In common with equity holdings in banks across Europe and in most parts of the world, the value of the State's holdings in the three banks I mentioned is less valuable than it was this time last year. That is just the way the market moved. What are we going to do? We will not do anything with Bank of Ireland at present. I have no plans for PTSB at present. I am asking AIB to continue the preparatory work. There will be no IPO in 2016, but I am holding open the possibility of an IPO some time in 2017, but that will depend on the advice I receive and on market conditions.

It is very difficult to put a value on AIB at the moment because with the State owning 99.9% there is not a real market in AIB shares. Anybody doing an independent valuation of AIB now would find it is worth less than it was worth some time ago, as is every other bank across Europe.

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