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

The Government is absolutely committed to ensuring that employment opportunities are available to the entire population of working age, including most of those on the first step of the ladder of work. The objective of the medium-term strategy is full employment by 2020. The strategic investment fund will play a key role in supporting this objective and it is important the fund's mandate does not appear to make it a tool of Government policy which could adversely affect the fund's ability to leverage its resources and attract private sector co-investment or worsen the general Government deficit.

However, the Bill provides that the NTMA must consult with the Ministers for Finance, and Public Expenditure and Reform, and have regard to the views they express in framing the investment strategy. Our approach is to be less prescriptive in legislation in order to allow flexibility for the ISIF investment strategy to change over time. Therefore, we are not accepting these amendments.