Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 331: To ask the Minister for Finance the level of funds in the pension reserve fund at 31 December for each of the past five years in tabular format; the outgoings from this fund to date in 2009; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38459/09]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF) was established on 2 April 2001 with the objective of meeting as much as possible of the cost to the Exchequer of social welfare pensions and public service pensions to be paid from the year 2025 until at least 2055. The National Pensions Reserve Fund Act 2000 provides, inter alia, for the annual payment into the Fund from the Exchequer of an amount equivalent to 1% of GNP and that the NPRF Commission, which is responsible for the investment and management of the Fund, shall not make any payment to the Exchequer until the year 2025.

The value of the NPRF at 31 December for each of the past five years was as follows:

The value of the Fund at 30 September 2009, the most recent value published by the NPRF Commission, was €20.9 billion.

In relation to the end-September figure, it should be noted that the National Pensions Reserve Fund Act 2000 was amended by the Investment of the National Pensions Reserve Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2009. The amendments in the 2009 Act allow the Minister for Finance to give a direction to the NPRF Commission to invest in a listed credit institution and to make payments into the Fund for the purposes of such an investment, such additional contributions to be offset against the contribution liability in future years. These amendments reflected the Government decision, announced on 11 February 2009, that the recapitalisation of Allied Irish Bank and Bank of Ireland through the purchase of preference shares by the NPRF would be funded by €4 billion of the Fund's own resources and €3 billion from the Exchequer through the frontloading of the 2009 and 2010 Exchequer contributions to the Fund.

Accordingly, it should be noted that the figure of €20.9 billion given as the value of the Fund at end-September includes the full Exchequer contribution of 1% of GNP for 2009, €1.584 billion, plus an additional sum of €1.416 billion to give the total of €3 billion referred to in the Government decision. As a result of these payments, no contribution to the Fund is expected to be required in 2010.

The NPRF Commission publishes annual reports as a statutory obligation and quarterly reports providing an update on the Fund's performance. Both the annual reports and the quarterly reports are available on the Commission's website www.nprf.ie