Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 439: To ask the Minister for Transport if his attention has been drawn to reports that the eight participating stockbrokers in the Aer Lingus flotation came to an agreement over commission rates and that as a consequence there was no competition and high fees were charged to purchasers of Aer Lingus shares; if the Competition Authority will be launching an investigation into this matter; if so, when they will report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32002/06]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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In setting out the general principles of the Aer Lingus IPO to the House on 6th July, I stated that shares would be made available to the general public through financial intermediaries. Following agreement with my Department and the Department of Finance the Joint Global Co-ordinators, who were responsible for marketing the IPO, entered into an agreement with all of the main stockbrokers concerning the conditions under which the brokers would participate in the offer.

One of the conditions set was that the maximum brokerage commission that could be charged would be capped at 1% of the aggregate Offer Price of the Shares allocated to each applicant in the Intermediaries Offer. Without a cap on commissions, investors may have been charged higher commissions by stockbrokers as they set their own commission levels in respect of other transactions.

I am not aware of any Competition Authority investigation into the matter. That would be a matter for the Authority.