Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 20 March 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill 2023: Discussion

Mr. Nick Ashmore:

That would call for a degree of speculation, as investment decisions like that are subject to the decision of the investment committee, which is a statutory subcommittee of the NTMA, and potentially of the board. We have a comprehensive sustainable and responsible investment strategy, which is also known as the environmental, social and governance, ESG, strategy for investing, under which we engage with companies and pursue an approach of active ownership. We look to integrate ESG factors into our capital allocation and integrate them into the analysis of any investments. We also have an approach of engagement. We work with the service provider Hermes US to engage with companies on issues which vary from their climate footprint to human rights issues and other areas. It engages on our behalf. We also have the ability to make exclusion decisions on an administrative basis and we have done so recently. For example, we exclude companies that are involved in the manufacture of components for nuclear weapons.

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