The government's been accused of throwing in the towel in its bid to get a special EU deal on Ireland's bank debts.
It's hired a team of special advisors from Goldman Sachs as it considers selling off its shares in AIB.
The State invested over €20 billion in AIB and the EBS building society, which has since been merged into the bank.
Last week the National Treasury Management Agency said the state's shares in AIB were worth €11.7 billion, while the state also holds 'contingent capital' notes which bring the total stake closer to €13 billion.
However the plan's been criticised by opposition parties, who say any move to sell the AIB shares would be tantamount to admitting defeat in Ireland's bids to secure a special EU deal on its debts.
In mid-2012 the EU's leaders agreed that Ireland was a 'special case' and that the Eurozone's new permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) could be used to refund some of the debts Ireland took on in the course of its banking collapse.
There appears to have been little progress on securing such a deal in the meantime - although this may be largely because the legal machinery to allow for such a deal was not fully put in place until last November.
However, the government has been stressing how difficult it would be to secure unanimous support for such a deal, and that selling the shares in the open market may reap a better return for the taxpayer.
Our political correspondent Gavan Reilly filed this report for Today FM's National Lunchtime News:
