Mr. Ronnie Downes:

I thank the Senator. Of course, I am very limited in what I can say about the NTMA's practices. I understand that in recent days, the decision has been taken to divest from a number of Israeli banks that had been involved in activities that are of concern to the committee. I will make a general point without talking specifically about what the NTMA invests or does not invest in. There is an increasing interest and emphasis among businesses and corporations generally about having closer regard to the nature of their investments. It is the so-called environmental, social and governance, ESG, criteria, which are taking on increasing weight for companies and investment vehicles that have shareholders and stakeholders who have concerns that need to be addressed.

Against that background, the European Union has been doing much work. There are initiatives called the corporate sustainable reporting directive and corporate sustainable due diligence directive, both of which are making progress. They are kind of giving more legal effect to some of these ESG-type principles. It is against that overall context that companies are taking a longer, harder look at where they invest and whether they can stand over it from a moral and ethical point of view. Therefore, I can only presume that it is against that background the NTMA or the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, took the decision they did with respect to those particular institutions.