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DÁIL ÉIREANN HAS voted to postpone the sale of its stake in AIB this afternoon after government TDs forgot to vote.
The motion to prevent the sale of 25% of AIB was proposed by Labour, and gave rise to a polarising debate about what to do with the government’s 99% shares.
But, as campaigns for the Fine Gael leadership get underway today, it seems the government forgot all about it.
“Remarkable way for it to happen…” Labour leader Brendan Howlin said on Twitter.
“…with government TDs forgetting to take their own side, but the Labour motion delaying the sale of AIB shares has passed.”
“Dáil passes motion not to sell AIB until fiscal rules are renegotiated. Government forgets to call vote [as it was] distracted by the leadership race,” said Sinn Féin’s finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty.
But a spokesman for the Department of Finance told Fora.ie the sale was still expected to go ahead when market conditions were suitable.
The government maintains the option of ignoring the vote and going ahead with the sale, as planned.
Finance minister Michael Noonan, who announced his retirement today amid a spate of Fine Gael announcements, said previously that the government should have the opportunity “to sell some of the State’s shareholding in AIB during 2017 or indeed early 2018″.
“Such a sale is provided for in the Programme for a Partnership Government and the ultimate decision will be subject to a range of factors including prevailing market conditions but the overriding consideration will be whether any transaction is likely to maximise the return for the State.”
But Labour wanted assurances sought to ensure that the money would be used to pay for new homes, schools and hospitals.
In an article over the weekend, Howlin said that the sale would “reduce our debt-GDP ratio by just 1%”.
He said that the estimated €3 billion that the government would get from the sale of the shares must be kept in AIB “until such time as we know we can use it”.
What is remarkable is that having lost the election on their plans for the economy, Fine Gael are now presiding over a single party government in the economic area.
“Ministers Noonan and Donohoe may be pleasant men, but at their core they are old school Fine Gael.”
Updated at 4.15pm to include a statement from a Department spokesperson.
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Nice to see the government has its priorities right. Look after ourselves first and then maybe worry about the country’s interests
@Bob Murphy: i just don’t understand why a government has shares in a supposedly private banking business. We’ve little or no board influence on them anyway. Why didn’t we invest in post office’s and credit unions and stop drip feeding these bloody parasites. Let them sink or swim and we ain’t picking up the tab either way any more
@An_Beal_Bocht: Where have you been living for the last ten years, under a rock? We bailed out the banks including AIB. That’s why we own 99% of their shares.
My point here wasn’t about the government buying the bank tock. It’s the fact that they are more interested in the election of a new party leader than showing up in the Parliament that we are paying them to be in.
@Jack Bowden: So if/when they sell there shares they’ll give the funds back to the taxpayers who baled them out? Will they f**k.
The irony in Howlin the blueshirt in disguise putting this forward when he was such a vocal supporter of giving away the country for free only two years ago and to pay for it letting people die and starve
The Daily bar must’ve been raving.
Typical FG party interests come before national interest. Where was the super chief whip Regina Doherty, she usually has a lot to say over others failings.
AIB was and is a disaster! Not quite as bad as BoI – who thankfully have brought in an female CEO (in c250 years), with experience in numerous countries. Not just this little island where we have encouraged promotion from within, for so long. With our politicians and bankers…
@Paul Foot: “Not quite as bad as BoI”…..think you’re a littled mixed up there! AIB was a basket case compared to BoI.
@Paul Foot: all in I think AIB will have cost the taxpayer more than Anglo and Irish Nationwide.
@Eoin O’Neill: and Reg. Apologies for my mistake – of course AIB was much worse than BoI.
@Fank Pulman: Fank, you commenting under a number of different names or what?
@An_Beal_Bocht: No
@Fank Pulman: then why did you respond as if you were Paul Foot?
@Paul Foot: “who thankfully have brought in an female CEO”
What relevance is the sex of the CEO?
@An_Beal_Bocht: nice catch there ..Paul foot and fans one and the same…who knew?.
@An_Beal_Bocht: same troll alright, more then likely will delete his numerous accounts and set up new ones like before
@Henry Matthews: More friggin sock puppet accounts… Yay!
@Henry Matthews: He used to be Pendragon 917. Then became Paul Foot, Now Fank Pulman. I mean how insecure have you got to be to hide behind different profiles.
@Fank Pulman: someone made a boo-boo…sad really!
Not a great start for a new “leader”
But the said they always put the country first,haha.mr Noonan is sickened.
They should hold onto these shares, things will improve for those banks in years to come
What I would like to know is, was this vote passed to
1. Protect the assets of the tax payer until a better opportunity for profit presents itself.
2. Was it for party ideological reasons, like nationalisation.
3. Just to score a political point.
AIB are in the process of selling of their loan portfolio to the Vultures so expect more repossessions.
Toss of a coin thing I’d say. None of them are experts on the stock market. Hell I’d say none of them are experts in finance either considering their horrendous wastage of taxpayers money!
I’m gonna buy the shares. I’ll get a loan from AIB to do so. I bet nobody has ever thought of doing something like that. Oh, wait …
@Ciaran De Bhal: Sean Quinn might buy the shares-didn’t he try to buy Anglo
This is a major international embarrassment, there has been alot of noise around the sale of AIB shares
@Dark Knight:
“The government maintains the option of ignoring the vote and going ahead with the sale, as planned.”
Please read the full article.
@P.J. Nolan: i read the article, do you think them forgetting to vote is not an embarrassment?
The slobs were living it up in the Dáil bar?
Seeing as the state already owns 99% of AIB, it would make sense for the government to sell the bank once it becomes profittable.
The UK government have just released their 40% of LLoyds Bank and made a cool 50 million (Sterling) profit.
@Chris Kirk: what difference does the profit of the bank make -the shares are not improving.
Enda resigns and the whole place falls apart.
Kenny gone only a few hours and they let the place go to hell…bring back Kenny! Nly joking the rest should beat it too
@Donnchadh Cassin: Only thing is he is not gone.
A few weeks off to count the lump sum and multiple pensions and then a nice cushy back bench seat for the rest of the ‘government’ time in office.
What a waste of time.
Well if they can go ahead and sell it anyway despite this vote, why would they bother their holes voting?
Dail wants to renegotiate the fiscal rules with the EU/IMF. Once u accept that the rule book in Dail Eireann is the loan terms form EU/IMF to Ireland then job done that 3 per cent gdp ration PLUS public fund will capitalise banks if they fail stress tests. Accepting that we do not hold the purse strings it all being pulled and pushed from abroad .. AIB is selling loans as a result of pressure form the ECB.
For me the first time I have seen DAIL make a statement on terms of that loan for the irish taxpayer AMEN but still no bill laid before dail requesting its permission to accept the term of that loan (like Westminister) and dail knuckle down to get get better deal for Ireland.
For soem eu leaders do not want ireland back on bond market.
have your say