Shane Ross (Independent)

It could be made up in many other places. The Minister of State knows where it has been done. He will have time to answer the question which is a fair one.

Why, in the name of God, does the plan not have a programme for a sale of State assets? If we are in such an appalling situation economically and given that the ESB is worth €8 billion and Aer Rianta, €1 billion, why did the Government not list the State's assets and declare that it would sell them in a particular order? This is an emergency, not a time to sit back and say: "We have these in our back pocket but we better not sell them." Why is there no programme for the sale of State assets to raise the money that it is necessary to raise? This is an emergency, not a time for sitting on assets, a lot of which are monopolies which are losing money.