David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased that the exchanges between the Deputy and the Minister of State are cordial on this occasion. I am happy to support this Bill and I commend Deputy Fleming on his initiative and on proposing the Bill. I also commend the Government and the Minister of State on not opposing it and on seeking to strengthen it on Committee Stage, which I always advocate unless there are substantial flaws or the Government does not agree with its intent.

The NTMA and the ISIF hold and invest the Irish people's money on behalf of the Irish people. It is only right that we, as the Dáil, act to ensure that money is invested wisely and ethically.

We recently supported Deputy Pringle's Bill to prevent the fund from investing in fossil fuels and for the same principled reasons, we are happy to support this Bill.

The facts from the Irish Cancer Society are cIear: smoking is the single biggest cause of cancer, causing one third of all cancers. Nine out of ten lung cancers are caused by smoking. Cigarettes contain more than 4,000 chemicals, 60 of which are known to cause cancer. Half of all smokers will die from a tobacco-related disease. None of this should be tolerated. This is not an industry that needs our investment.

Each year at budget time we discuss how much should be levied on cigarettes. My party argues for increases in excise duty, not to raise revenue but on the grounds of public health. In the programme for Government, the ongoing increase in excise is thrown out as a means of offsetting the promise to abolish the universal social charge. That is certainly the wrong way to approach increasing revenue on cigarettes. If the Office of the Revenue Commissioners is asked, it will refer to its publicly available ready reckoner. It will also point out that increasing excise on tobacco is as likely to result in less revenue being collected as more.

It is political chicanery to claim that a 50 cent or 20 cent increase in the price of cigarettes for the next few years will even partly make up for tax cuts of thousands of euro to benefit the wealthy in this State. If this Bill passes, as I hope it does, we will have a country that forbids its investment arm to invest in tobacco but a cynical Government which is happy to rely on more and more income from tobacco as a way of funding hospitals and schools while it cuts taxes elsewhere.

The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, which is better known to many as the National Pension Reserve Fund, NPRF, is a key tool for investment. God knows we need investment, and we have had many exchanges with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform on the need for capital investment in many areas and for greater flexibility in the application of the fiscal rules. We all know there is a need for it when we see Department after Department make increased demands for increased capital investment. The investments of the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund in the tobacco industry are so small that I have no concerns that this Bill will in any way hamstring its ability to fund investment.

Economically, I hope the tobacco industry's heyday is in the past. It makes sense for us to look at cleaner industries and technology as the key planks of our investment strategy.

Following on from this Bill and the Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill, there is an opportunity to thoroughly examine our future investment strategy. Ethics should underpin that strategy. We must ensure we can stand over all investments from a development and human rights point of view as well as an economic point of view.

For all those reasons, I am happy to support the Bill. We will look at amending the Bill on Committee Stage, as the Minister of State has indicated he will. I commend the author of the Bill, Deputy Fleming, for bringing it to the House.

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