Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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What we want to achieve is important but albeit modest in a Norwegian context. Let us not compare ourselves against Norway. However, the engagement with the Norwegian representative was useful in terms of our own thinking on the direction of travel of this. Is there a fund or vehicle that – though every case is different – might be more directly applicable to Ireland and Irish circumstances? Is that one model that is favoured over another that may not appear in the scoping documents?

What are the witnesses’ thoughts on drawdown thresholds? I am interested in what was in the scoping documents around capitalisation and drawdown - 3% and 5% - all very modest and prudent. We are clear on what the drawdown thresholds are in terms of the NRF and the 2019 legislation. Should it be – how to describe it – less open to exploitation or, dare I say, abuse from the political system? There is a national consensus perhaps that we need to have an intervention and vehicle like this and it should be less subject to the political vicissitudes. For example, one could anticipate a situation arising where, at some point in the future, a Government or a Minister might decide ahead of an election to withdraw significant resources from the fund.