Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for recognising that this Bill has nothing to do with the troika agreement. It is one of the first occasions on which the Government has admitted that something it is doing has not been forced on it by anyone else. It is worth putting on the record that the original troika agreement did not commit the Government to sell any State assets but merely asked the Government to examine what I believe was in the McCarthy report at the time. There was no agreement to sell State assets, and therefore, what the Minister put on the record with regard to this legislation is important.