The value of the taxpayers’ stake in banks bailed out during the financial crisis dropped by about €3 billion last year, according to state officials.
The latest accounts for the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), which manages the state’s assets, shows that the value of the country’s stake in AIB and Bank of Ireland was €7.8 billion at the end of last year.
This was down from €11.5 billion at the end of 2017, a drop of nearly 33 per cent. The state holds a 71 per cent share in AIB and a 14 per cent stake in Bank of Ireland after the bank bailout.
The figures do not include Permanent TSB, which is about 75 per cent state owned. This stake is worth about