Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The first thing to say is that the Minister is as good as her word. She promised to take four of my amendments back to the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. They have returned to the House this evening as three amendments but all four are captured. I thank the Minister for that. It is unusual and rewarding as a Government backbencher when a Minister engages constructively with the amendments and we find them making their way through into the final law, I hope, presuming that we pass them here this evening.

The Minister will know that my greater overall objective in this Act was about where we invest money and that we should not invest it in fossil fuels or cluster munitions. This came as a recommendation of our pre-legislative scrutiny report on this Bill. I understand the over-and-back that we have had on it. From my point of view, the battle is lost, but my colleagues in the Seanad may take up cudgels on the issue again. The Minister can look forward to that at her leisure. To return to this specific amendment, it is small but I think it is quite impactful. Whether we put in prohibitions at some point in the future for investments of the auto-enrolment scheme in things like fossil fuels and munitions, at least by dint of this amendment we will be able to see where the money is invested.

I understand it is only a portion of what will be contributed to these pension pots but I have always strongly felt that any Government investment should come with the values of this State attached. We have seen the values of the State in spotlight today with our recognition of the state of Palestine. It is not just in words that we want to embody that but in the actions of the State around things like investment. Putting your money where your mouth is a phrase we often hear. This is a case of trying to do that or to ensure that we do not put our money where our mouth says we should not go. However, that is tangential to the point. I am very happy to see that this amendment has made it through the process. Having that statistical data relating to types of investments held by auto-enrolment provider schemes will give us better oversight of Government money. We will see in the future if it is an issue. It may be that the statistical data is published and we can say that we can absolutely stand over that as a State and that we are quite happy with those investments and where they are, or it may come to pass five, ten or 15 years from now that we identify a problem and we say a balance has to be struck between the individual return on investment and the common good, which is what I am most concerned about if we are investing money in the wrong way.

As I said, I thank the Minister for taking this amendment on board. She is as good as her word. I think this amendment improves the Bill and I am delighted to see it as a ministerial amendment.

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