Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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Question 167: To ask the Minister for Finance the amount of money in the National Pension Reserve Fund in each year since the fund was established; the amount of money which has been withdrawn in recent years; the amounts withdrawn on each occasion; the purpose for which the money was withdrawn; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19933/10]

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.

No withdrawals have been made from the Fund. The Investment of the National Pensions Reserve Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2009 amended the original legislation so as to allow the Minister for Finance to direct the NPRF Commission - who control and manage the Fund - 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 (AIB) and Bank of Ireland (BoI) 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.

In March and May 2009, under the terms of this Act, the NPRF Commission invested, at my direction, a total of €7 billion in preference shares issued by BoI and AIB (€3.5 billion in each institution). I expect that this participation by the NPRF in the recapitalisation of AIB and BoI will yield a satisfactory return for the Fund over time and will assist the Fund in its purpose of meeting as much as possible of the cost to the Exchequer of social welfare pensions and public service pensions from 2025.

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

The market value of the Fund at the end of each year since 2001 was as follows:

2001 €7.7 billion

2002 €7.4 billion

2003 €9.6 billion

2004 €11.7 billion

2005 €15.4 billion

2006 €18.9 billion

2007 €21.2 billion

2008 €16.1 billion

2009 €22.3 billion

The most recent quarterly report, to 31 March 2010, valued the Fund at €24.5 billion.