Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 8, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following: “(3) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), the FI Fund investment strategy shall have regard to the promotion of the economic development and stability of the State, across sectors including but not limited to housing, infrastructure, energy and water.”.

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House. Amendment No. 4 relates to the investment strategy under the future Ireland fund. Its purpose is to provide a focus to the investment strategy towards domestic investment within the State. At present, the only specification under the investment strategy is that money is to be invested inside and outside of the State. As we are all too aware, however, the State is suffering a chronic housing shortage and infrastructure deficits. These deficits are posing a real and significant threat to the competitiveness of our economy and the living standards of Irish people. There is a risk that the money allocated to this fund will be predominately invested abroad in search of higher interest yields. Under this Bill, the Government is legislating for annual contributions to the fund that will grow to €5.4 billion in 2030. It would be a missed opportunity should other jurisdictions benefit from investments under this fund while this State continues to face significant challenges in the areas of housing and infrastructure. As stated, the latter are holding our economy and our people back. Instead of creating a fund which will focus on investment abroad, the Government should use windfall corporation tax receipts to create a fund that will focus on infrastructure in Ireland. This is a view shared by others including the Nevin Economic Research Institute and IBEC.

Under this Government, the housing crisis has gone from bad to worse and has reached diabolical proportions. If it were focused on domestic investment, imagine the impact the fund could have in taking us out of the housing crisis. That is why we have tabled this amendment.