Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 73: To ask the Minister for Finance if office holders who own approved retirement funds, ARFs, are obliged to declare these to him and to the Standards in Public Offices Commission in view of the fact that these were not subject to the recent pension levy introduced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16156/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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All members of the Oireachtas including office holders are required under the Ethics in Public Office Act 1995 to disclose annually their registerable interests to the Standards in Public Office Commission. If at any time in a registration period (i.e. a calendar year to 31 December) an Oireachtas member including an office holder has a holding of shares, bonds, debentures or other like investments , with an aggregate nominal or market value in excess of EUR 13,000, in respect of any one company or enterprise or undertaking, the Oireachtas member including an office holder is required to disclose the holding in his or her annual statement of registerable interests to the Standards Commission.

A holding does not include money in a current, deposit or other similar account, but does include a holding in unit trusts, managed funds or equity based accounts. An approved retirement fund would be a like investment and would require disclosure where in excess of the EUR 13,000 threshold.

An office holder would also be required to disclose the holding regardless of value to the Taoiseach and the Standards Commission if it were to represent a material interest in an official function which fell to be performed by him or her. The Taoiseach would disclose an interest in those circumstances to the Chairman of the Standards Commission.