Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 108: To ask the Minister for Finance the amount of the National Pensions Reserve Fund that will be used for job creation initiatives; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45800/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF) was established in 2001 under the National Pensions Reserve Fund Act 2000. The purpose in establishing the NPRF was to meet 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 legislation was amended by the Investment of the National Pensions Reserve Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2009 and the Credit Insitutions (Stabilisation) Act 2010 to allow the Minister for Finance to direct the NPRF Commission, which is responsible for the control, management and investment of the assets of the Fund, to invest in credit institutions in certain circumstances, government and government-guaranteed securities and to make payments to the Exchequer to fund capital expenditure in the years 2011 to 2013.

The Commission is required to invest the assets of the Fund, excluding investments made at the direction of the Minister for Finance, so as to secure the optimal total financial return, having regard to the purpose of the Fund and the eventual requirements on the Fund to make payments to the Exchequer, provided the level of risk to the moneys held or invested is acceptable to the Commission. In relation to the creation of employment, the Government announced in the National Recovery Plan 2011-2014 that it would help identify public infrastructure investment opportunities for the NPRF and that the Commission had agreed in principle to fund the domestic water meter installation programme. The Fund is also a participant in Innovation Fund Ireland and has made other Irish venture capital investments. The Commission is of course required to satisfy itself that such investments are is in accordance with its investment mandate.

The latest published figure for the value of NPRF in 2010 is to the end of December, when the value of the Fund was €24.4 billion.