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

I might be in the Taoiseach's 11. I would like to deal with a number of the points raised. First, on the question of timing, it has always been the policy of the Government since we first put capital into the banks that in due course the banks would be restored to private ownership. That was the common policy position, shared with the Labour Party in the previous Government.

Second, it is included in the programme for Government and the programme for Government was debated in the Dáil and I assume it was debated in the Seanad as well. It is there in black and white that we were committed to selling about 25% of AIB shares when the timing was right. The advice I am getting is that the timing is now right. There has been a big boost in shares across the world in the past four months or so. Small banks in particular have gone to much higher values than they were. Today the Nasdaq reached its all time historic high. The stock exchange in London is also very near the top. The advise is that this is a good time and we hope that the month of June remains reasonably stable so that the benign atmosphere is not affected in any way. I will follow the advice. Of course, it is not beyond the point of no return. It will not get priced until the second half of June. The pricing process will be a range of prices. If the range of prices is falling well below expectations, whoever is Minister at that time, still has the capacity and the legal authority to pull it back from the market. It is not a case of selling under all conditions. It will be measured as it goes along, but in all likelihood there will be a successful sale of 25% of AIB and that is my expectation and that is my advice.

I will now deal with the issue of ownership. With respect of Sinn Féin, whose members in the Seanad were arguing totally in contradiction to the policy position the Sinn Féin Party has taken up on the banks in the past eight years. There was a common analysis that the reasons the banks went down was that the banks and the sovereign were inextricably linked. When the banks went bust, it pulled the sovereigns, the national Exchequers down as well. It is a common analysis. The reason it is a common analysis is because it is absolutely true.