The long and protracted sale of state owned shares in AIB bank will go ahead as planned in the coming weeks after the Minister for Finance sanctioned the sale this week.
It is understood that the state will happily sell its 25% stake in the bank in order to recuperate in the region of €3bn.
The Department of Finance say that it will sell the shares on the Irish and London stock exchanges next month.
However the decision to sell the shares has drawn widespread criticism given that the state only nationalised the bank just over seven years ago at a cost of €20bn.