Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Let me be clear, Sinn Féin supports the setting up of a sovereign wealth fund. Long-term strategic planning of our public finances across the island is at the core of our vision for a new and united Ireland. There is widespread agreement that windfall corporation tax should not be spent on current expenditure. The unreliable nature of corporation tax means that is the prudent thing to do. However, investing in desperately needed capital projects makes more sense than investing in financial assets. We believe there is an urgent need to use available resources for desperately needed infrastructure, most of all in housing, but also in rail, roads, the energy grid, hospitals, schools and regional development to rebalance our country. Where we are unable to invest all windfall tax revenue into infrastructure, due to capacity constraints and sequencing of projects, then naturally it should be stored in funds, but only in these situations.

The best way to protect our public finances into the future is to invest in infrastructure now that can act as a catalyst for growth and prosperity in the future. That is not the approach being taken in the legislation, which completely misses the point. It locks in a predetermined level of transfer to the funds each year based on GDP. The most obvious and basic question is why this is not a percentage of GNI*. It makes no sense whatsoever. It should not be the case that there is a rigid commitment that disregards the prevailing economic environment in the future. We cannot stand over an attempt to legislate for future budget decisions. That is the right and responsibility of the Government of the day.

This legislation reminds me of when the troika were here - when democracy was restricted, and bureaucrats were making decisions. Economic policy in a democracy is decided by the Government and people of the day. Political parties face the electorate and outline their economic policies and, ultimately, the people decide. It is not for the Minister to decide the budget parameters of future Governments. We might criticise the Government's budget decisions but never its right to make them. This legislation is an attempt to lock in a Government's failed economic policies. A Government needs to be able to look at the level of corporate tax receipts and the capacity to ramp up housing and other infrastructure then decide a budget, like every other Government in the past.

This legislation can be fixed. We need to remove specific financial commitments. The Minister of the day should get an assessment from the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IFAC, outlining most importantly the level of windfall tax income and other economic forecasting and then decide the right amount to transfer into these funds. The Government is so out of touch that it needs to wake up. This is a rainy day for so many people across the country. What is being proposed is so out of touch with the reality of people's lives.

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