Fleming fumes over tobacco hazard for State agencies

Tobacco should be added to a list including cluster munitions and antipersonnel mines in which State agencies are prohibited from investing, the Dáil has heard.

Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee Seán Fleming said legislation which bans investment in weaponry and mines is the only area in which the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) and the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) are prohibited from investment.

He told the Dáil he wanted to extend the exclusion to tobacco and was introducing legislation to that effect, which mirrors the 2008 Act banning investment in cluster munitions and antipersonnel mines.

The Ethical Public Investment (Tobacco) Bill aims to prohibit investment of public moneys directly or indirectly in equity or debt securities issued by tobacco companies.

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Mr Fleming said the Bill would end “once and for all the practice of the State holding investments in tobacco companies”. He added that “it is immoral for the State to make a profit on the sale of cigarettes and should not be allowed to happen”.

Strategic fund

The Fianna Fáil TD said that in July last year the NTMA and the strategic fund were before the Public Accounts committee and in December the strategic fund divested itself of its shares in three tobacco companies.

He said however that the fund “could reinvest on a commercial basis if the case arose again so I want to ensure we have legislation on the statue book setting out the policy issue for the fund in the future”.

Referring to the health implications for Ireland of tobacco consumption, he said it costs the State €1.5 billion in healthcare costs and loss of productivity annually.

“It kills 6,000 people a year which means an average of 16 people a day die in Ireland as a result of tobacco-related cancer and other illnesses.”

In addition: “More than 81,000 hospital bed days are taken up treating people with preventable cancer arising from smoking.”

The Bill, which will be debated in private member’s time has six sections including the duty of investors to avoid investment in tobacco companies.

“Where the ISIF has an investment in a company that subsequently acquires an investment in a tobacco manufacturer, it must get a commitment that the company will cease dealing with tobacco or the Irish State will disinvest itself of its share,” he said.