Pearse Doherty

What analysis, if any, has been carried out by the Minister or his Department in relation to the dividends forgone as a result of the State selling its shares in the AIB since 2022? As the Minister knows, I argued against the sale of those shareholdings in which at one point in time we had 71% of the shares. What dividend are we losing as a result of the fact that we now do not hold shares that ba…

There is no doubt that we will not benefit from hundreds of millions of euro in dividends each year. The Minister can make the point of €273 million of a dividend last year on the basis of a 19% shareholding. Obviously, if we had the 71% that would be significantly increased in a year where the bank paid out close to a billion euro on dividends. This was one of the most financially reckless decisi…

It is not just the Minister who is at a loss. The taxpayer is at a loss because of his decision. The reality is, and I asked whether his Department did any analysis of this, one of the major issues in terms of share price is the profitability of a bank or of a company. We can see the profitability of AIB and Bank of Ireland. The bank was nationalised at a time when it was making losses and was so…

We did not. Is the Minister joking me?

Anglo Irish Bank cost €33 billion.

Come on.

The Minister said we got good value out of all of this.

Tell us how we got good value then.

We also lost as a result of AIB.

Let me make the argument in respect of AIB.

The Minister likes to ignore the fact that we paid-----

The Minister likes to ignore the €700 million in interest every year that the Comptroller and Auditor General has talked about.

That is not good value.

The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund is a €16.6 billion fund comprising the discretionary portfolio of €8.9 billion and the directed portfolio of €7.7 billion based on the 2024 annual report. It has a double bottom line mandate to invest on a commercial basis in a manner designed to support economic activity and employment in Ireland. ISIF has complete independence in implementing its investment…

May I come in?

The Minister's response is bull. That is the reality. His Pontious Pilate approach of washing his hands does not wash. He previously wrote to ISIF but on the issue of investing in a genocide, he sat on his hands. I will quote a Government press release, which stated: Minister Donohoe has recommended that the ISIF should move from a broad investment strategy that is focused on all sectors, to a fo…

The Minister reviews ISIF's investment strategy.

The Minister reviews ISIF's investment strategy.

It is a simple thing. Do not fund the genocide

The Minister reviews ISIF's investment strategy.

I am not letting him away with that.

I did not say that.

The Minister should refocus.

You should have refocused the fund-----

-----like you did before and said, "Do not fund the genocide."