Mr. Nick Ashmore:

At the moment, we have a sustainable and responsible investment strategy that lays out how the NTMA approaches responsible investment. It aligns with the UN principles for responsible investment. The main tools we use are thinking about responsible investment in the context of capital allocation. We integrate it into our analysis of investments and potential investments. We pursue a policy of active ownership, which varies depending on whether it is public or private markets and Irish investments. We also have a practice of exclusion on a practical basis for certain categories of investment. Those exclusions are in two forms, either voluntary or through legislation such as the cluster munitions and anti-personnel mines legislation and the fossil fuel exclusion legislation. That feeds into the strategy. We deploy it in a number of ways. Irish investments tend to be singular, either in funds or individual companies, businesses or platforms.

We will assess the sustainable, responsible investment aspect of each of those investments as we put it through our approval process. In the global markets, we work with external managers. We work with third party counterparties or providers who work on our behalf to both track the ESG aspects of those investments but also to engage on our behalf, and on behalf of other investors in aggregate, with companies in those portfolios.