Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I rather think my colleague is the lucky one since I am here and he is elsewhere, but we will talk about that another day. I will speak to the amendments and the Bill generally.

Amendment No. 1 appears to be a technical amendment clarifying that given payments will be made to the IMF by the Central Bank, payments shall be made from the Central Fund to the Central Bank under the guarantee that underpins the arrangement.

Amendment No. 2 appears to apply to specific transactions, which I would appreciate the Minister of State taking the opportunity to clarify, even though he has to some extent. It allows the Minister for Finance to make a payment not exceeding €6.6 million. The amendment makes specific reference to the Somalia Administered Account and the Sudan Administered Account. I would appreciate if the Minister of State could outline the specific purpose of these IMF accounts.

The legislation had been well flagged before reaching the Dáil. It aims to facilitate the State's participation in the IMF's new arrangements to borrow, NAB, process and streamline procedures for contributing to IMF trust funds. The role of the IMF is crucial. It includes the facilitation of international trade, promotion of employment and sustainable economic growth and the reduction of global poverty. A core responsibility is the provision of loans to member countries that are experiencing balance of payments problems. Resources for IMF loans to its members are provided by member countries, primarily through their payments of quotas. Multilateral and bilateral borrowing serve as a second and third line of defence, providing temporary and supplementary resources.

The NAB facility constitutes a second line of defence to supplement IMF resources to cope with an impairment of the international monetary system, with member countries and institutions lending additional resources to the IMF. In January 2021, a reform of the NAB process took effect following consents from NAB participants, almost doubling the fund for the period from 2021 to 2025. The core provision of the Bill is to allow the State to participate in the NAB facility within the IMF. Section 2 provides for the approval of Ireland's participation in the NAB decision, whereby the Central Bank, acting in its capacity as Ireland's fiscal agent to the fund, will be responsible for providing a loan to the IMF in the case of a call on the NAB. Under the terms of this decision, adopted on 16 January 2020, the State committed approximately €2.3 billion.

The Minister of State has gone through the various sections and I will not do so again. We recognise the need for Ireland to fulfil its obligations within the international community. We recognise the role of institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank in our multilateral system. For that reason, Sinn Féin supports the legislation, which will see Ireland participating in the IMF's NAB facility and thereby providing credit to the IMF in its operations.

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