TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY has said he does not expect the sale of any State assets to begin this year.
Speaking in the Dáil this morning, Kenny said formal proposals on the sale of assets – which the government this morning said would include the likes of some ESB stations and Bord Gais’s energy business – would probably begin next year.
The Minister for Communications, Pat Rabbitte, “will consult and bring to cabinet, in due course, his recommendations for what element of power generation within the ESB will be sold off,” Kenny said.
But because the government’s goal was to raise €3 billion through the sale of such assets, Kenny said he did not “envisage that any of this will happen this year” – as rushing into a sale would not raise “the most opportune price”.
“I do envisage the commencement and realisation of some of these assets in 2013,” the Taoiseach said, adding that the government had won a major concession from the Troika by securing the right to reinvest €1 billion of the proceeds.
Kenny was responding to charges from Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams who said details of the sales should have been revealed in the Dáil and not in a press conference which clashed with a Dáil sitting.
“Instead of flogging off the state’s wealth for a quick buck,” he said, the government should act to “make them part and parcel” of an economic solution.
“There is a very very clear pattern of government making announcements outside the chamber.”
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