Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I concur with what the Deputy said last, as the experience of Irish Water clearly shows. Approximately 80% of more than 1,200 people working in Irish Water come from those categories of young people, long-term unemployed apprentices and so on.

The investment mandate of the fund is to invest on a commercial basis in a manner that is designed to support economic activity and employment. It is an investment fund and it is important that the fund is invested commercially to ensure the investments are kept off balance sheet and no state aid issues arise.

If the funds were used to provide for an important public need, as suggested in Deputy Doherty's proposal, there would be clear risk that it might be seen as Government expenditure rather than investment, worsening our deficit. The same is true if the ISIF were to seek rates of return adjusted to take into account the broader economic, social and environmental impact. ISIF's commercial mandate is also important to put the fund in a position to leverage its resources by attracting private sector co-investment, recycle its resources in order to make more strategic investment over time and ensure that the public assets entrusted to the fund are not frittered away.

To the extent that there are commercial investment opportunities that support economic activity and employment and also provide an important need or have a desirable social or environmental impact, the ISIF will be able to invest. That was the key point I made to Deputy Higgins earlier. In such a case, it will be a matter for the agency's investment committee to decide to go ahead. I am satisfied on the one hand that there is no need to amend the Bill, as suggested in amendments Nos. 30 and 32, because the fund can be invested in such areas if commercial investments emerge. On the other hand, we should not be too prescriptive about what the fund can and cannot do in order that it does not become simply a tool of Government policy without a real commercial mandate.

Responding to Deputy Troy-----