Vol. 500 No. 7
285 Mr. McGuinness asked the Minister for Finance if he will introduce legislation to enable depositors with TSB to qualify for free shares should a merger and floatation take place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5106/99]
As I have stated in response to questions from Deputy Stanton on 9 February and Deputy Gay Mitchell on 16 February, the question of free shares for customers only arises in the case of organisations such as mutual building societies which are owned by their customers. This does not apply in the case of TSB or any of the State companies such as ACC or ICC. The proceeds from the sale of the TSB and public assets will accrue to the Exchequer. The question of reserving a specific number of shares at the offer price for long standing customers of ACC/TSB when floated on the Stock Exchange is something I will consider at the appropriate time.
