Dublin promised to sell assets after receiving an €85 billion lifeline in 2010 from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - jointly known as the troika. They left it to national authorities to decide exactly what to auction off and when.

The new list, unveiled Wednesday, Feb. 22, was agreed with the troika based on the principle that there will be no fire sales, the Irish government said.

"We want a good price," Brendan Howlin, Ireland's minister for public expenditure and reform, told journalists in the Irish capital. "We are not going to short-change taxpayers."

Assets slated for the auction block include power stations as well as the energy operations of Bord Gais Eireann, but excluding its gas transmission or distribution systems or the two gas interconnectors, which will remain in state hands.

Dublin said it may also consider the sale of non-land assets of forestry and timber company Collite, as well as the state's remaining shareholding in Aer Lingus - but only "when market conditions are favorable and at an acceptable price to government."

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny told parliament he expects the sales to begin next year at the earliest. While the government dropped plans to sell a stake in the Electricity Supply Board, the country's largest energy firm, it will invite bidders for "non-strategic power generation capacity," he said.

Ireland has the green light from the troika to re-invest one-third of all the proceeds into its economy. In his remarks to journalists, Howlin said that up to €1 billion may be pumped into "job-rich" investments, with the rest used to slash the national debt.

While Ireland is moving ahead with its privatization, Greece has shifted back a gear after getting the green light earlier this week from euro-zone finance ministers for its second international bailout. Greece has put all new sales on hold until at least June. Some 35 transactions are planned over the next two years, most of which will be land and building sales.

Portugal, the third euro-zone country to get an international lifeline, agreed earlier this month to sell a 40% stake in REN-Redes Energeticas Nacionais SA for €592 million to State Grid International of China and Oman Oil Co. to meet the terms of its bailout agreement.