Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive and very clear outline of the current Government position on the sale of State assets. He has set out very fairly the nature of the programme for the sale of assets and he has given the House certain reassurances that are particularly important to those of us who would clearly prefer not to see us selling State assets. However, as he said, we are in a particular and exceptional economic circumstances, the gravity of which not everyone even in this House appears to appreciate, as evidenced in the debate and particularly with regard to the comments of the Senator from Sinn Féin.

The Minister has very clearly set out a number of important principles that will guide the sale of assets, including that there will be no strategic infrastructural assets sold, that we have learned from the Eircom débacle and that a sale will only take place when market conditions are right and, crucially, one third of the proceeds from the sale will go to stimulus packages. Other Senators have asked for the details in this regard. My specific question is about the timeframe and whether there is any constraint on us as regards the timeframe within which sale of assets should take place. Can we take our time in assessing market conditions? Are we required to sell within the timeframe, for example, of the EU-IMF programme? That is something that is not quite clear.

Others have mentioned the new Irish water utility, which is to be set up under the auspices of Bord Gáis Éireann. This offers immense possibilities and is an exciting prospect.