Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The matters referred to by the Deputy were considered by my Department under Action 12 of the Climate Action Plan 2019. A Working Group was established to consider Action 12 and finalised a report in December 2019, which was submitted to the then Minister in January 2020.

Amongst other things, the Report proposed that, in light of current and forthcoming EU initiatives and Ireland’s commitment to our 2030 Climate and Energy Goals, Action 12 should be considered in broader terms than simply a strict requirement on pension providers to disclose what portion of any fund is made up of fossil fuel assets and a requirement to provide an option to pension-holders to opt for a fund which does not include fossil fuel.

The Report’s proposals were integrated into the work of the Department in relation to –

- significant developments taking place in the area of sustainable finance across the EU which includes various legislative measures such as the IORP II Directive, Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (‘SFDR’), Sustainable Finance Benchmarks Regulation and the Taxonomy Regulation. These measures, some of which have already been implemented, set out requirements for pension schemes in respect of such matters as the disclosure of information on Environmental, Social and Governance (‘ESG’) factors and the integration of sustainability risks in investment decision-making.

- various initiatives being advanced by Government under the Roadmap for Pensions Reform, including those in relation to Master Trusts and an Automatic Enrolment retirement savings system which will better equip pension schemes to provide investment choice and meaningful disclosure.

The policy initiatives and EU developments referred to above will reshape the Irish pension landscape over the coming years and will, collectively, provide for the meaningful disclosure of sustainability information and other matters.

Currently, environmental disclosure requirements applying to Irish pension schemes include -

- the IORP II Directive, which has been transposed in Irish law, provides for the consideration of ESG factors in relation to Investment (Article 19); General governance (Article 21); Risk management (Article 25); Own risk assessment (Article 28); Statement of Investment Policy Principles (Article 30) and information to be provided to prospective members (Article 41), and

- SFDR, which has direct effect, seeks to achieve greater transparency regarding how financial market participants (including pension schemes) integrate ESG risks into their investment decisions and provides for specific disclosure requirements in this regard including policies on the integration of sustainability risks in the investment decision-making process (Article 3); a statement concerning adverse sustainability impacts (Article 4) and information on the integration of sustainability risks to be provided as part of pre-contractual disclosures (Article 6).

As the Deputy will be aware, the National Treasury Management Agency ('NTMA') provides a range of asset and liability management services to the Government. The Fossil Fuel Divestment Act 2018 amended the National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Act 2014, in order to, amongst other things, impose certain prohibitions and restrictions with respect to investment by the NTMA in fossil fuel undertakings. My Department has no role in respect of such matters as the National Treasury Management Agency Acts come within the policy remit of the Minister for Finance with responsibility for Ireland's energy and climate action policies coming within the remit of the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications.

I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.