Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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91. To ask the Minister for Finance to outline the level of investment by the State in Israeli bonds; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39745/25]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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My first question is about Israeli war bonds. The Minister will know that we had Private Members' business about this before. We learned yesterday that the State continued to invest in Israeli war bonds right through the genocide. As our screens were lighting up with men, women and children being slaughtered by Israel, the State still held investments during that genocide. I would like to know how those investments increased last year. We heard that the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, obviously covering its back, said they are now sold. When were those bonds sold?

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund is a €16.6 billion fund comprising the discretionary portfolio of €8.9 billion and the directed portfolio of €7.7 billion, based on the 2024 annual report. It has a double bottom line mandate to invest on a commercial basis in a manner designed to support economic activity and employment in Ireland. ISIF has complete independence in implementing its investment strategy under the NTMA Acts under an investment committee reporting to the NTMA's board. At year-end of 2024, ISIF held €3.6 million in Israeli sovereign debt, which was 0.07% of its global portfolio. ISIF monitors all of its holdings within its investment portfolio to ensure alignment with its risk profile and investment parameters.

Regarding the divestment, ISIF noted yesterday that security tensions have been rising in the Middle East. This posed an increased risk to assets with economic exposure to the region. ISIF's view is that following the escalation of the Israel-Iran conflict in June 2025, the current situation carried materially greater risk. I am advised by ISIF that, given these escalating geopolitical tensions and conflict, it determined that the risk profile of a number of sovereign bond holdings in the region were no longer within its investment parameters. Following this determination, ISIF divested its holdings of sovereign debt issued by Jordan, Egypt and Israel. As a result, the ISIF team has increased the monitoring of its holdings in the region, in particular in relation to the most impacted and neighbouring countries where ISIF currently has exposures. It will continue to monitor them to ensure that investments remain aligned with its investment parameters.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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I find this absolutely outrageous. What did the Minister do in this period? Did he know that the Irish State, using Irish taxpayers' money, was funding a genocide? Israel does not hide behind this. It does not blush about this. It sells and advertises these bonds as supporting the war effort. We all know that it is not a war. We know it is genocide. Before this, regarding the Central Bank's role, one could say that the State was not directly funding it but was just assisting the ability to sell the bonds. This is the State putting cash on the table and investing in war bonds. It appears that the investment increased in 2024, when it was at full tilt. I ask the Minister again when the disinvestment happened. When did ISIF sell its bonds?

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The key point to emphasise is that ISIF made the decision to divest of these bonds. It no longer holds them. I understand this decision was made over the last number of weeks.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Exactly. We were asking the Minister how much money ISIF had in war bonds, how much money it was putting on the table and how much money was being invested in the bombs and bullets that were slaughtering children right before our eyes. Children who were queueing up for water were being slaughtered and this State invested money in it. You cannot wash your hands of this. You are the bloody Minister for Finance and an organisation that falls under the remit of your Department is investing in genocide. There are no ifs, buts or maybes. The NTMA had to produce its annual report. It knew it was going to be called out by us and others who are rightly appalled that our taxpayer money was going to fund the genocide in Palestine. It scampered around and sold because it needed a media line in the face of genocide, to control the narrative, but for all of last year, right up until the last number of days, I bet, it still held these investments.

It is sickening and the fact the Minister did nothing about it, despite it being repeatedly put to him here in the Dáil, is disgraceful.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I will make three points on this. First, ISIF no longer holds these bonds. It divested of them. Second, as the Deputy well knows, ISIF independently decides what shares it is going to hold and what investments it is going to make. It does so in a way that is completely independent of me. Third, I thoroughly refute any suggestion of complicity in the appalling violence being inflicted on the people of Palestine. I wish to make clear my condemnation of what is happening-----

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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They are war bonds.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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-----as the Government already has on many different occasions. I emphasise that these bonds are no longer held by ISIF and were sold.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Bogfaimid ar aghaidh go dtí Ceist Uimh. 92 leis an Teachta Ged Nash.