Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Members of the House for their consideration of the Bill in recent weeks. I thank the House for the broad support - it was not unanimous but there was broad support from the House. It would be remiss of me not to thank the officials in my Department and the Attorney General's office. This was complex legislation. It is unusual that a Bill brought forward can go through the Dáil and Seanad without the Government having to amend its own Bill in some way. No amendments were required to this Bill on the Government's side. It is a testament to the amount of work put in by them in the drafting and preparatory stages. I acknowledge the co-operation of a number of Departments that had input into the infrastructure, climate and nature fund element of the Bill. I thank the NTMA, which is developing a work programme in parallel with the legislative process, which will enable the funds to be set up in the coming weeks.

This is landmark legislation because it makes the future more secure for all of us. It makes the management of our public finances more sustainable as the future Ireland fund will help us to mitigate some of the costs definitely coming our way from the changing demographic structure of our population which will have significant cost implications down the line in pensions, home care and healthcare. We have to be in a position to make a contribution towards those costs from the return from this fund. The second fund is vital. It is focused on infrastructure. It means we can get away from that boom-bust approach to investment in public infrastructure, housing, healthcare, education and renewable energy, etc. That is the essential purpose of that fund, with a subset within that fund earmarked for investment in climate projects and protection of our biodiversity and nature. This is what responsible governance looks like - making long-term plans for the management of our finances. I thank all colleagues for their co-operation and the vast majority for their support. The intention is to have the funds up and running in quarter 3 of this year.