Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

There was an aspect of pension funds that annoyed me intensely during the Celtic tiger years. Like many people, I have invested in private pension funds and I must admit that I have dabbled, and I use that word advisedly, in the stock market over many years. Some people like to dabble in horse racing or the lotto, but I always had an interest in balance sheets and seeing how they would perform. I would hate to describe how they look now. However, it annoyed me intensely that Irish pension funds overwhelmingly invested in Irish banks. Time and again I recall contacting Irish-owned pension funds, such as Irish Life and New Ireland Assurance, and asking them to justify this. I discovered that in some instances they were actually owned by the banks in question or had some financial link with them. I could never understand why the pension fund managers never looked outside the box but instead put all their money into the same basket. We saw what happened.

As a consequence, since 2008 many defined pension funds have more or less tanked and people who had looked forward to a comfortable retirement are in serious distress. Ironically, Irish pension funds in recent years have been investing increasingly abroad, mainly in Germany, but now are being encouraged to return and to invest in Ireland. However, the scenario has changed dramatically as rather than investing in Irish banks, it now is envisaged that they would invest primarily in Irish infrastructure. Although I agree with the sentiments and motives behind the Sinn Féin amendments, they beg the question as to whether the money would realise a capital return even were the trustees in agreement with the proposals. Ultimately, the responsibilities of the trustees lie in deciding where to invest the money to ensure there is a capital return on the investments for those who contribute to the funds.

Senator Darragh O'Brien also referred to this point but one of the most calamitous decisions taken by the present Government was to abandon metro north. That decision will haunt this Administration-----