Banking Sector
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-26
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

I appreciate the different political, ideological or policy positions on bank ownership. It is legitimate for people to hold different views on these subjects. The stated intention of the Government, and I think successive Governments, was to seek to return those banks to private ownership and to seek to recoup the money that the taxpayer had put into those banks, namely, AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB. That objective was largely fulfilled. I do not think the State should be in the business of owning banks. We all know how we ended up in that position as a State and it certainly was not by some sort of design. It was because of the financial crash and the chaos that ensued.
I am conscious that I am reading out a lot of figures and I am happy to send the Deputy a detailed note on the issue. I would just point out that the assertion around €7.7 billion was at a point in time at the end of 2024. What I have tried to do this evening is to update the Deputy on the current position because we have seen that number reduce as the result of investment decisions we have made, including for infrastructure projects. I will send the Deputy a note.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:04+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-26