Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

We have representations from the venture capital industry and they are talking about more potential to invest in the country because their current level of investment is very small. Between 6% and 7% of Irish pension funds are invested in Ireland for good and sufficient reasons. They operate under rule and they are obliged to spread their risk so I am not for a moment saying they are doing anything improper or unpatriotic but there is scope for further investment in Ireland from Irish pension funds and it would be good if they expanded in the venture capital area. As I understand, the submission to my Department is that rather than saying that the amount they put in would be diminished by the levy, they argue that they should be given more scope by the Government to invest in venture capital. We are putting together a micro-investment fund for investment in small industries, small IT, for the most part.

Deputy O'Dea also suggested a league table of how the levy would affect different pension funds. I do not think it would be possible to do this by means of legislation but perhaps one of the consumer organisations might take that up as it would be appropriate for a consumer organisation.

There has been much argument that the fund managers and the industry itself should bear the burden of the levy rather than the funds themselves and in my view there is scope for this. It is a question whether they will be able to bear the full burden of the levy or part of it but there is certainly scope for the industry to absorb some of the levy. The very fact we are talking about these things and that people such as Deputy Ross is writing in such a wide-circulation newspaper about these matters, makes the investors very aware. For the first time investors are looking at their charges and they will be putting pressure on their managers to reduce their charges so this is one resultant benefit.

I have written to the representatives of the two groups whom I met and who lobbied strenuously. I have written to express my view that they should absorb some or all of the levy and I hope they will reply with a positive response.

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