As the Deputy will be aware, we have agreed with the Troika that all of the Government’s proceeds from the State asset disposal programme, including proceeds received from any sale of Coillte assets, apart from its land holdings, will be available, in one shape or another, to support job-creating initiatives in the economy. Half of the proceeds will be available to fund employment enhancing projects of a commercial nature. The other half, while destined eventually to pay-down debt, will, in the first instance, be constituted as a fund to underpin additional lending into Ireland, for example by the EIB, in support of further investment in job-creating initiatives.
An inter-departmental steering group has been established to oversee the ongoing preparations for a sale of Coillte assets and, in examining all the issues that must be addressed to reach a successful conclusion, this group has been asked to pay particular attention to the matters raised in the Deputy’s question. The Deputy will understand that I do not propose to indicate to the market how much I expect to raise from the sale of any of the assets in the disposal programme, including those of Coillte, but I can assure him that the sales will be transacted via an open, transparent and competitive process.
