Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Question 127: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the way he intends to proceed with the planned sale of State assets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20292/12]

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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Question 131: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the time frame his Department is working to with regard to its schedule for the disposal of State assets. [20299/12]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 127 and 131 together.

I am happy to report to the House that significant progress has been made on advancing the asset disposal programme that I announced last February. A number of inter-departmental working groups have been established to examine each of the assets referred to in my announcement and NewERA has prepared two very thorough financial reports on BGE and Coillte which have now been considered by their respective working groups.

The Government is committed under the EU/ECB/IMF Funding Programme to outlining in detail for the Troika, by the end of the second quarter (end June 2012), the specific regulatory, legislative, corporate governance and financial reforms which need to be taken in 2012, ensuring consistency with relevant EU legislation where necessary, to allow for the asset sale programme to proceed in 2013, and a calendar with indicative timelines for sales will be set out. The issues requiring resolution having already been identified by the end of the first quarter, work is continuing now in the relevant Departments and agencies on considering how they should be addressed in order to facilitate the launch of sale transactions in 2013.