The Finance Minister says a sale of AIB shares - worth up to €3 billion - will begin immediately if he's returned to office.
Michael Noonan's comments come as the bank has today repaid €€1.64 billion in bailout funds to the State.
It's the first tranche of around €21 billion invested in the bank during the financial crisis - all of which is to be recovered by the taxpayer.
Bank of Ireland has already repaid the taxpayer in full for its investment (although the government still owns about 16% of BOI shares), while Irish Life was sold off for the same €1.3 billion price that was invested in it.
That leaves only Permanent TSB - which took €2.7 billion of public money - and the defunct IBRC as the only banks yet to repay the state.
Our political correspondent Gavan Reilly reports:
