Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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720. To ask the Minister for Finance whether Irish sovereign funds are invested in fossil fuel industries; the steps his Department is taking to ensure Ireland's investments are green investments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43755/25]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Fossil Fuel Divestment Act 2018 (the “Act”) has been in place since December 2018. Pursuant to the terms of the Act, the NTMA must, inter alia, endeavour to ensure that the assets of the ISIF are not directly invested in any undertaking that generates 20% or more of its turnover from the exploration for or extraction or refinement of a fossil fuel (coal, oil, natural gas, peat or any derivative thereof intended for use in the production of energy by combustion).

ISIF has developed a list of 261 fossil fuel companies in which it will not invest, as determined by criteria within the Act. This list is updated on a semi-annual basis in line with methodology which is aligned to the Act and is available on ISIF’s website.

ISIF’s Climate Investment Strategy seeks to fund climate positive initiatives which support Ireland’s transition to a Net Zero low-carbon economy details of which can be found in the latest NTMA Annual Report here: NTMA-Annual-Report-2024.pdf ()

The Future Ireland Fund (FIF) and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund (ICNF) are currently being invested according to their respective interim investment strategies. These strategies reflect a low-risk appetite, permitting only highly rated liquid securities that have a low degree of inherent risk such as sovereign and quasi-sovereign bonds.

While the long-term strategies for the FIF and ICNF are currently under development, the exclusion of certain categories of investment is mandated by the legislation, including investment in fossil fuel undertakings, cluster munitions and anti-personnel mines. Other non-statutory exclusions likely to apply include the manufacture and testing of nuclear weapons coal production and processing, and tobacco manufacturing. This is in line with requirements for ISIF.

Section 31 of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Act 2024, builds upon the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act 2018, requiring the NTMA to endeavour to ensure that the assets of either the FIF or ICNF, are not directly invested in a fossil fuel undertaking.

Additionally, the funds should not be invested in an indirect investment which is likely to have in excess of 15% of its assets invested in fossil fuel undertakings.