Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 184: To ask the Minister for Finance the full extent of the national pension reserve fund at this time in each of the past five years to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39196/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF) was established on 2 April 2001 under the National Pensions Reserve Fund Act 2000 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. According to the National Pensions Reserve Fund Commission, which is responsible for the management and investment of the Fund and which publishes a report on the performance of the NPRF at the end of each quarter on the Commission's website www.nprf.ie , the value of the Fund at the end of September from 2005 to 2009 was as follows —

2005 €14.5 billion

2006 €17.6 billion

2007 €21.3 billion

2008 €18.7 billion

2009 €20.9 billion

The latest published figure for the value of NPRF in 2010 is to the end of June, when the value of the Fund was €24.1 billion. The quarterly report on the Fund for the third quarter is expected to be published shortly.

Under the National Pensions Reserve Fund Act 2000, the Exchequer is required to contribute a sum equivalent to 1% of GNP to the NPRF each year. In 2009, in addition to a statutory contribution of €1.6 billion, the Minister for Finance made an additional contribution of some €1.4 billion towards the cost of the NPRF's investments of €3.5 billion each in Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks plc, made at his direction as part of their recapitalisation. In addition, €1 billion in assets of university and non-commercial semi-state pension funds was transferred to the NPRF in 2009 and a further €1.1 billion in 2010. Legislation provides for the offsetting of these additional amounts against the statutory contribution in 2010 and following years.