Zimbabwe investments criticised

GREENS last night demanded action to stop hundreds of millions of euro of taxpayers’ money being invested in strife- torn Zimbabwe.

The party’s finance spokesperson, Senator Dan Boyle, hit out after reports that the National Pension Reserve Fund has pumped over €578 million into Zimbabwe-based companies.

Fine Gael accused the coalition Government of “hypocrisy” over its stance towards Robert Mugabe.

Sen Boyle tried and failed to introduce ethical guidelines for the fund with a private members bill as an opposition TD two years ago.

“It is entirely inappropriate, at a time when Irish and EU foreign policy is considering additional sanctions against Zimbabwe for its shocking lack of respect for human rights, that the National Pensions Fund — which makes investment on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of public sector workers whose pensions it manages — is putting substantial sums of money into Robert Mugabe’s vile regime, and other similar regimes around the world. It is unethical that public money is used to profit from the activities of despots and the misfortune of their victims.

“The board of the Pension Fund has started a process of ensuring that its investments are ethical, and indeed it made a good start when it announced in March that it will cease investing in companies known to have an involvement in the making of cluster bombs.

“But there is an urgent need for this type of action to be extended and for full ethical investment guidelines to be put in place. Under existing legislation, the NPRF Commission’s only obligation is to maximise profits. It is clear to me that many taxpayers do not want public money invested in companies with links to evil regimes or in the arms industry in general.

“I would be confident that there is broad cross-party agreement on this issue in the Dail, and I intend to raise it with our Government partners at the earliest opportunity,” the senator said.

Fine Gael Foreign Affairs spokesperson Billy Timmins said: “Fine Gael has, in the past, called on the Government to cut economic and political ties with Zimbabwe and it is unfathomable to learn now that the State Pension Fund is being invested in companies operating there,” he said.