Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not want to see anything invested in the armaments industry, no more than do any members of the committee. I must look at this context here, though, from the point of view of the contributions of the citizens of this country. These are contributions. Money, of course, goes into the NTMA. While that is garnered by taxation, the money in this case does not come from taxation. These are contributions people are making into a savings pot for their retirement and it is governed by social justice principles. It must be proportional in how it is administered. We cannot, therefore, treat people who are a part of an auto-enrolment system differently to people who are not.

In terms of occupational pensions, if people have a pension in their workplace, they cannot decide where the money is invested. That does not happen. It is invested for people. People make their contributions and that is it. It must be remembered that everything we are doing here through auto-enrolment is governed by the ESG principles. This is the governance stipulation in place. It is written into the legislation. I honestly think, therefore, that we have put a lot of safeguards in here to ensure the money is appropriately invested. None of us want to see these funds going into the armaments industry. I must, however, also be careful. If we are going to take this a step further and attach these sorts of conditions to these investments, then they must apply right across the board to all State-incentivised investments. I do not want to see the people contributing into the auto-enrolment system being treated any differently to anybody else.