Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Senator's intentions in this area are sound. I note that these are legacy holdings and that there is currently a review under way, both in terms of the fund's investment policy and its exclusion policy. Now is the time to engage on this front. In regard to the work which the Senator intends to pursue, he might want to look to Norway and its ethical policy for its pension fund, which is well regarded around the world in terms of how it approaches its investments and is also very successful.

In the last Dáil, I published an ethical investments Bill but it did not make it to Second Stage, unfortunately. That Bill also addressed the issue of putting in place legislation dealing with cluster munitions as part of our obligations under the cluster munitions treaty not to invest in companies that manufacture those types of weapons. It was also an attempt to build a framework through which we could include other types of ethical investments and to address the need for certain divestments on an ethical basis. Issues being considered in the context of the review include what exclusions should be contained in the policy of the new fund as it moves away from legacy investments into new investments as per legislation. I encourage the Senator to engage with that review, which is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter in 2017.