Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The total recapitalisation of the domestic banks amounted to €64.1bn, of which €34.7bn was invested in Anglo Irish Bank and INBS or Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) and €29.4bn in AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB. To date, €23.1bn of the investment in the three remaining banks has been recovered in cash by way of disposals, investment income and liability guarantee fees.

As part of this activity, the State has fully disposed of its investment in Bank of Ireland.

The State has made good progress in reducing its shareholding in AIB from 71.1% at the beginning of 2022 to c. 40.8% today while recovering over €2.8bn during that timeframe as part of the process. The fifth phase of the AIB trading plan became operational on 24th January 2024 and this approach has played an important role in enabling us to gradually reduce our shareholding in AIB. My officials and I will continue to look at other disposal options, should they present themselves.

With regards to PTSB, in June 2023, I successfully disposed of part of the shareholding in this bank. The disposal was executed by way of a placing of shares in an accelerated book building process to investors, carried out in tandem with NatWest. The State sold a 5% stake in PTSB and following this transaction, the State retains a 57.4% shareholding in the bank.

The remaining investments in AIB and PTSB are currently valued at c. €4.9bn (as at 30/1/2024) leaving a shortfall of c. €1.36bn.

The investment in IBRC is largely a sunk cost with a net €1.1bn recovered to date.

The long-standing policy of this Government is to return the remaining banks to private ownership, while achieving value for our citizens. It continues to be this Government’s belief that banking in the main is an activity that should be provided by the private sector and that taxpayer funds that were used to rescue the banks should be recovered and used for more productive purposes.