THE STATE’S 25 per cent stake in Aer Lingus is included in the list of State assets recommended for sale as part of the bailout agreed with the EU-IMF troika.
The list has been drawn up by an interdepartmental group which identified assets and commercial State companies that could be sold in addition to the minority stake in ESB, a sale already agreed with the EU Commission, ECB and IMF.
Other key assets which have been identified as suitable for sale include Dublin Port, which has been provisionally valued at €400 million, and parts of Bord Gáis and Coillte.
The report of the group, drawn from six Government departments, cautioned against the “fire sale” of any asset and also emphasised that the stake in Aer Lingus would have to be sold at the right time.
The value of the stake, at less than €100 million, may be considered too low at present.
Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar has also been examining how the airline’s valuable Heathrow slots can be safeguarded in the event of a sale. A senior Government source said that any outcome would have to include protection for the slots.
The report has been discussed by the Government’s Economic Management Council – comprising Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and Ministers Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin – but has yet to be tabled for discussion at a full Cabinet meeting.
However, it has formed the basis for detailed discussions with officials from the troika. Its latest 10-day mission to Ireland is assessing the Government’s implementation of the four-year €85 billion rescue package during the last quarter of 2011.
A Fianna Fáil delegation, which met the troika yesterday, said its officials had praised the Croke Park agreement, saying it was working well. “They told us that it was a good model as it was achieving greater efficiencies through a consensual approach,” said a party spokesman.
The assessment does not tally with the views of some senior figures in Fine Gael and in business who have called for reform of the Croke Park deal in light of deteriorating economic growth prospects.
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan and Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin will meet senior officials on Thursday morning, ahead of two separate media conferences. The Government has said it has met all the targets laid down in the programme to date.
Mr Gilmore insisted all in Government agreed there was no need for a second bailout despite weekend comments by his Labour colleague Joan Burton that a second rescue could not be ruled out: “There is a single, unified Government position on this and that is to get out of the programme as quickly as possible, and all of the measures and action we are taking are aimed in that direction.”
Fianna Fáil challenged suggestions from Government sources that the troika was seeking €5 billion in State asset disposals. The party said that the troika had set no targets.