Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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116. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 39 of 29 May 2025, the progress made to fully divest from all Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) global portfolio investments in companies on the UN Human Rights Council database of business enterprises, given the value of direct and indirect investment in 13 companies remained at €10.65 million as at April 2025; the value of both direct and indirect investment divestment since that time; if the ISIF has increased its investment in any of these enterprises or any other enterprise on that database since the divestment process began; the timeline for divestment from these companies in entirety; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39401/25]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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At year-end 2024, ISIF held both directly and indirectly €7.76 million in six companies listed on the UN Database – 0.16% of the Global Portfolio. Direct investments by the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund in companies on the UN database were approximately €5.6 million in 4 companies and its indirect investments were €2.16 million and included 5 companies.

I would say that in my response of 3 April 2025 I provided end 2023 figures, and I am now providing end 2024 figures. NTMA does not, as a policy, publish unaudited figures related to ISIF's holdings or indeed as regards to their financial statements.

You will note that the overall trend in the ownership of the specific entities on the UN list is lower in 2024 than in 2023.

As regards divestment, ISIF divested from six companies in 2024, with a total value of approximately €2.95 million. The six companies were Bank Hapoalim BM, Bank Leumi Le-Israel BM, Israel Discount Bank Limited, Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank Limited, First International Bank of Israel Limited and Rami Levi Chain Stores Limited. At the time, ISIF determined that the risk profile of these investments was no longer within its investment parameters.

These holdings and the details of all other ISIF holdings are available in the NTMA Annual Report 2024 which was just recently published.

Summary Table UN Database holdings YE 2024

Given the scale of the portfolio ISIF manages and how much it manages overall, it is important to respect and support the independence of the board and the decisions it makes. Divestments have already taken place and ISIF will determine the correct investments in a way that is consistent with its independence and mandate.