The Department of Finance said the state was already “in the money” as it planned a sale of its stake in Bank of Ireland.
Minister Paschal Donohoe announced in June that the government would be selling off its 13.9% stake in the bank through a pre-arranged trading plan.
Records released under FOI reveal the plan first began to gather steam in March when a banking roadmap said bank stocks had recovered from a “torrid 2019/2020”.
An internal presentation said sale of Bank of Ireland stock would allow the department to signal that the “privatisation programme is back on”.
It said the Exchequer was currently down €5 billion on its €29 billion investment in the banking sector and that shares would need to double in value from that date to close that gap with full recovery unrealistic in the short term.