Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

304. To ask the Minister for Finance to provide a breakdown of the €19.8 billion that will be returned to the State in sales of shares, dividends paid and any other mechanism for returning funds to the State, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33830/25]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The State invested €20.8bn in AIB between 2009 and 2011. Following settlement of the final AIB share sale announced in June 2025, c. €19.8bn has returned to the State to date from its investment in AIB. This excludes the value of the AIB IPO Warrants held by the Minister.

Following the IPO in 2017 and our various share sales, we have reduced the shareholding in AIB from c.71.1% at the beginning of 2022 to zero in June 2025, raising c. €15.8bn in the process. This was achieved through the AIB share trading plan along with seven accelerated bookbuild (ABB) transactions and various directed share buyback transactions with the bank.

The trading plan and each subsequent ABB transaction were successful in gradually reducing the State’s investment in the bank and improving liquidity in the shares. Throughout each phase of the trading plan and through the larger block sales, the State has been selling into a rising share price environment. The AIB share price at the start of 2022 was 224c per share, while at close of business on 16 June 2025 it was 701c per share. It is important to understand that there is no other way to exit these large bank investments. The State cannot wait until some supposed peak in the stock market and then suddenly sell billions of euros of shares to investors in one transaction. Rather, the approach of incrementally selling blocks of shares creates greater liquidity which in turn attracts additional sell-side research coverage and a deeper pool of buy-side investor interest.

A further €2.3 billion of investment income (including dividends) was received and combined with €1.8bn of CIFS and ELG fees, a total of €19.8bn has been returned to the State.