Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State has the wrong end of the stick regarding my amendment No. 30 which would not take away the commercial basis for where the fund lends. We in Sinn Féin have our own proposals for how that should be used, obviously. We met representatives of the troika when they used to come here to discuss how that might be managed, including off balance sheet and so on. Obviously, it has to be commercial because it will run out and will need to be able to regenerate.

The section states: "on a commercial basis in a manner designed to support economic activity and employment in the State." Both have to be deliverable. The term "economic activity" is probably broad enough and "employment in the State" is clear. Any investment will probably create economic activity so it is about the interpretation of that. It is not just about economic activity and employment in the State. It is also about important public need, public services essential to the operation of the economy and essential social or environmental action. It needs to be commercial but it may not necessarily result in employment. The stipulation here is that it is commercial to support economic activity and employment in the State. There may be an investment that does not support employment but is still commercial.

It is all about the intention of the section because any investment will create at least one job so it is a question of how it is interpreted. Somebody could say it was not the type of employment envisaged for the amount of money invested.