Mr. Frank O'Connor:

There are two new funds. There is the Future Ireland Fund, FIF, which will put away 0.8% of GDP until 2041, if possible. That will be invested long term. There is then the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund, ICNF, which is more of counter-cyclical fund to help with climate. Those are the two funds. Basically, the money that is due by the end of the year means, as per the slides, there will be approximately €16.5 billion in those funds, with €12 billion in the FIF and €4 billion in the ICNF. Currently, those funds are invested in an interim strategy which is a conservative, fixed income strategy in Europe until we get the approval of the long-term strategy. We have established an investment committee, consisting of two boards members of the agency and four international experts from around the world, as the Deputy may have seen. The long-term strategy has been approved by that committee and the agency board. It is now with the Government for consultation and we wait to hear back. That is per the legislation. Right now, it is operating an interim strategy. It is invested in conservative low-risk, fixed-income ways in Europe, pending approval from the Government. There will then be a transition phase to invest it.

Briefly, to give the Deputy a sense of the strategy, without getting into the details, broadly the long-term fund to 2041 is expected to have a long investment horizon. That predominately will have a lot more equity risk and less bond risk. It is for the long term. With the ICNF, liquidity can be drawn per the legislation soon. In fact, the €3.15 billion allocated for climate can be drawn down in the near term regardless of economic conditions. We will keep that money in much more conservative liquid, short-term horizon investments because it may be called upon soon. That is the FIF. I tried to be as short as I could. Mr. Ashmore will explain the strategy of the ISIF.