As the Deputy is no doubt aware, the Government has decided to establish the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) which will absorb the resources of the National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF). Officials of my Department are currently preparing the necessary legislation which I hope to publish in the first half of 2014.
The ISIF will have a statutory mandate to invest on a commercial basis to support economic activity and employment in Ireland. The discretionary fund of the NPRF, worth some €6.8 billion at end-December 2013, will become available to invest in Ireland as suitable investment opportunities arise and are developed.
The NPRF Discretionary Portfolio has committed close to the twenty per cent limit for Irish exposure determined by the NPRF Commission as being an appropriate maximum level of investment in Ireland under the Fund's current statutory investment mandate. As at 31 December 2013 the total amount committed by the NPRF to investment in Ireland was €1,257 million.