No clarity on Bord Gáis proceeds

Only a tenth of the proceeds from the sale of Bord Gáis will be invested in projects in Ireland with no clarity as to how the remaining €900m will be spent.

There has been a long-running battle with the troika as to what percentage of the gains from the privatisation of Irish semi-states will be spent on job stimulation measures and how much will be spent repaying the Government debt.

Britain’s Centrica and its consortium partners announced this week that they will buy the retail arm and energy generation assets of Ireland’s State-owned Bord Gáis for €1.1 billion with the deal expected to close by June of this year.