Dr. Laura Bambrick:

I refer to how much of this money will be invested in Ireland. We are all familiar with the property market being run by German and Canadian pension funds, so there is nothing to say that in future years it will include Irish pension funds, although not necessarily within Ireland. The same applies to ethical investment. That will be a matter for both the tendering process and the CPA to put limits on what can be done with the money. It will also be a matter for pension providers, if one provider wants to make its unique selling point that it will only do ethical, green investments. One of the most difficult things about this will be getting workers to choose the investment they want. If a provider can set itself up as only investing in Ireland and-or making ethical investments, this might make it more attractive. However, it will ultimately be down to the CPA and the tendering to put parameters on how the money can be invested.

I refer to pension funds and the issue of customers not receiving the product they thought they had bought. There will be a need for legislation in this area and reassurance provided to the public that we have learned from past mistakes as well as some sort of guarantee, which will be a big job of work.

As to tax relief, our understanding is that the State contribution is instead of tax relief. That is why we have made the argument that it should be €1 for every €2.50 invested instead of €1 for every €3, so that it is equal to the 40% tax relief. However, there will be tax relief for employers and they will be able to reduce it from their corporation tax bill. They will not get the State investment, and the employees' deduction contribution will be on their after-tax income.