Keith Swanick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for taking this important motion on investments held by the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, through the strategic investment fund. This is a health and financial policy issue, because tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in Ireland and is an enormous strain on our health system. We always want to see the NTMA generate a significant income for the taxpayer through prudent and strategic investments. The strategic investment fund has a statutory mandate to invest on a commercial basis, and I fully acknowledge the independence of the NTMA in carrying out its important work. The long-term strategic investment of taxpayers' money is something that can and should be done professionally and devoid of political interference.

My Fianna Fáil colleagues, Deputies Sean Fleming and Michael McGrath, have previously raised this broad issue on ethical investment with the Minister of Finance and the CEO of the NTMA, Mr. Conor O'Kelly. We know from the NTMA's most recent annual report that the State held more than €7.2 million in quoted equity and debt instruments for Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and other major tobacco firms. This is incredible and is part of almost €35 million of taxpayers' money invested in the alcohol, tobacco, aerospace and defence industries.

I wish to concentrate on the tobacco companies for health and financial reasons. A detailed study, an assessment of the economic cost of smoking in Ireland, was produced by the Department of Health in 2016. The estimated cost of smoking on the health care system is more than €500 million per year. This is made up of direct costs in three areas. These are hospital-based costs of €211 million, primary care costs amounting to an enormous sum of €256 million, which could solve our primary care crisis at least five times over, and domiciliary costs of €40 million. It is estimated that approximately 6,000 people are killed annually by smoking. This is equivalent to the population of an entire town such as Bandon in County Cork, Westport in County Mayo, Kells in County Meath or Carrick-on-Suir in County Tipperary. The direct cost of €500 million year does not include lost productivity from ill-health and other huge drains on our public services. Department of Health data from three years ago shows an average cost of €5,400 every time a smoker was admitted to hospital with a tobacco-related illness, for example chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD. In 2013, which is the most recent year for which I have statistics, there were 31,000 such admissions at €5,400 per admission. This does not include the primary or GP care costs and associated costs such as medication.

I am aware that investment by the NTMA in specific companies is made through fund managers, lest it be suggested the NTMA actively seeks to invest in such companies. However, it is the case that over the summer, the NTMA CEO told the Committee of Public Accounts that armaments is the NTMA's only restricted investment category. In 2015, information made available by the Minister for Finance outlined that the strategic investment fund has excluded 14 companies from its investments. These companies are not named, but it beggars belief the Irish taxpayer still has €7.2 million in equity and debt instruments in tobacco giants such as Philip Morris and British American Tobacco. In case anyone has forgotten, these are some of the same companies that threatened to sue my Seanad colleague, Senator James Reilly, and his successor as Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, for doing their job.

This area is above party or partisan politics. We all need to address it and provide leadership on it. When he was Minister with responsibility for health, Fianna Fáil leader, Deputy Micheál Martin, led the way in pioneering our move in Ireland towards a tobacco free society with the ban on workplace smoking. Other countries followed suit once they saw the success it was having. The area of ethical investment is another area in which we should take the lead because while wholly independent, the strategic investment fund's investment policy is set out by the National Treasury Management Agency Act 2014. According to the Minister for Finance, the strategy is determined, monitored and kept under review in accordance with the Act. This is the basis for my call for a process to be put in place to put investment in tobacco companies on the list of prescribed investments.

I struggle to understand how holding equity and debt instruments in such companies is in keeping with what various Ministers said regarding their intention to establish the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund. Former Minister of State, Deputy Fergus O'Dowd, spoke on Second Stage of the legislation in 2014. He stated, "The intention is that the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, will channel its resources towards productive investment in the Irish economy and leverage its resources with private sector co-investment and target investment in areas of strategic significance to the future of the Irish economy".