Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the Deputy's points about the State's involvement in insurance. Through the State Claims Agency we have very extensive involvement in settling insurance claims taken against any public body, as well as Irish public bodies that are not State bodies but are connected very closely to the local authorities, and it covers all claims against local authorities and education and training boards. The State itself is directly involved in settling claims and we have first-hand experience of that.

The private insurance market is a matter for the private sector. The need for a State bank is an interesting point and the Deputy referred to the ones we owned previously. It must be stated we are the majority shareholder in AIB. We own well over 70%. We are also the majority shareholder in Permanent TSB and own well over 70% of that. We have a very high stake in Bank of Ireland. There is probably no other country in Europe where the state has such an ownership level in all the major banking and financial institutions. When it comes to having a State bank, we are involved in every single one of them.

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