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Courts Service of Ireland reduces shares in Big Tobacco, but still holds €4.5m worth in stocks

Critics state the Courts Services continued investment in the tobacco industry flies in the face of the government’s Tobacco Free Ireland vision.

THE COURTS SERVICE of Ireland still holds about €4.5 million worth of stocks in companies that make and sell tobacco products.

This is a reduction of about 50% in tobacco stocks in one year, according to the Courts Service.

In 2017, there was a 1.89% exposure in tobacco shares – putting the funds stake in tobacco firms at about €8.7 million.

The investment in tobacco shares has now almost halved to €4.5 million, with the exposure reduced to 1.06%.

The holdings specifically relate to the investment of Court Funds, which are held by the Courts on behalf of wards of courts, minors and other beneficiaries.

Other monies held in the account relate to cases pending further court orders, residential redress board cases, lodgements with defence case types and the Insurance Compensation Fund.

The latest annual report, published last week shows that Court Funds increased from €1.676 billion to €1.842 billion.

TheJournal.ie revealed last year that the Courts Service held about €6 million worth of stocks in companies that make and sell tobacco products in 2016.

In 2017, the Seanad unanimously passed a motion calling on the Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan to bring an immediate end to the investment in the tobacco industry by the Courts Service of Ireland.

However, a July 2017 letter from the President of the High Court, Justice Peter Kelly said it may not be possible for the Courts Services to totally divest its shares in tobacco company stocks, despite the Seanad voting for it to do so.

He said, “It may not be possible to exclude tobacco stocks from the current fund or index as there are other investors involved whose agreement would be required to change the investment strategy.”

The holdings specifically relate to the investment of Court Funds, which are held by the Courts on behalf of wards of courts, minors and other beneficiaries.

Flying in the face of government policy 

However, Fianna Fáil Senator Keith Swanick and TD Sean Fleming say that the Courts Services’ continued investment in the tobacco industry flies in the face the government’s Tobacco Free Ireland vision.

Swanick told TheJournal.ie this week that he welcomed the reduction in tobacco shares, but said the current situation is “farcical”.

I welcome the reduction of holdings in tobacco by the Courts Service, this is progress. However any investment whatsoever, regardless of how nominal it is, is not acceptable.
“The Department of Health published a Tobacco Free Ireland plan in October 2013 with the aim of making Ireland a ‘tobacco free’ nation by 2025. For a state agency under the remit of the Department of Justice to facilitate the investment of monies in tobacco is nonsensical.
I have published the Courts Service (Amendment) Bill 2017 to prohibit investment by the Courts Service in tobacco-related companies. This Bill is unnecessary and cumbersome as it is within the gift of the government to bring an end to this farcical situation.

Sell-off of tobacco shares

In 2016, the Irish State finished its sell-off of any legacy holdings in Big Tobacco (the name given to the five largest firms that make cigarettes and related products).

The decision was taken to remain in line with Ireland’s wish to become smoke-free by 2025.

At the time, former Finance Minister Michael Noonan said the decision reinforced the government’s policy on smoking.

He noted that the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (Isif) had sold off its legacy investments in tobacco manufacturing companies. Last year, the Charities Regulator completed its divestment of tobacco stocks.

Continuing the trend of divesting in shares of companies that contradict government policy, last week the government agreed to support a private member’s Bill to offload its shares in fossil fuels.

anglo-court-cases-40-390x285 Rollingnews.ie Rollingnews.ie

‘Turning a blind eye’

Swanick and Fleming have accused Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan of “turning a blind eye to what is going on under his remit”.

In his reply to the two politicians last year, Justice Kelly said of the total fund there is a “very small exposure to tobacco related equities”.

He also set out why it may not be possible for the Courts Service to divest its shares in tobacco companies.

Having checked with the Courts Service fund managers, he said he was informed that because other investors are involved, it would require their agreement to change the investment strategy.

He said the investment committee did consider the matter earlier this year. However, he states it was advised that “it was quite complex to find a solution”.

“It would be expected that any solution would likely result in higher fund management fees for beneficiaries and would quite possibly require a full EU open procurement process to be undertaken. The latter would take between 12 and 18 months,” he said.

Change in policy or legislation

Should the government decide to introduce a policy or legislation as to how funds are to be invested, including the exclusion of certain stocks, the Courts Service and its investment committee will take that into account, continued Justice Kelly, adding that in the meantime the matter will be kept under review.

Since that Seanad motion was passed last year an estimated 6,000 people will have died from smoking-related illnesses, said Swanick.

“If that does not portray the urgency of this issue, I have no idea what does,” he added.

A statement to TheJournal.ie from the Department of Justice said it does not play a role in determining how the monies are invested:

“The Department of Justice and Equality does not have a role in managing or directing investment of Court funds. Court funds are not public funds. They are funds administered by or on behalf of the Courts and the Courts and Judiciary are constitutionally independent in the performance of their functions.
The funds are held in trust by the courts on behalf of persons under the protection of the courts and are invested in accordance with investment strategies approved by an Investment Committee, chaired by the President of the High Court.
“The Trustee (Authorised Investments) Act 1958, which governs the investment of court funds, does not preclude investment in tobacco products as such.”

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19 Comments
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    Mute One Human Being
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 12:43 PM

    Now if only he could reduce the administration staff and increase frontline staff then we might go towards fixing some of the issues within the Irish healthcare system.

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    Mute David Burke
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 1:04 PM

    Everyone likes the sound of that but it’s often madness.

    Medical treatment requires admin so appointments get scheduled and the right leg gets chopped off.

    You get rid of the admin staff and the paperwork doesn’t go away. So instead of €30,000 a year clerical worker doing the paperwork you have a an experienced highly qualified senior pediatric nurse earning €70,000 doing the paperwork.

    Blanket calls to get rid of admin staff don’t make sense. Bloods still need to go to the labs, results collected, patient files put together and then filed. Who does that work if you get rid of admin staff.

    Health systems are complicated and it’s universal setup. For every soldier on the front line in the US military are there are 3 in logistics, communication, support, intelligence, command etc.

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    Mute Peter M Buchanan
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 1:16 PM

    Everything here of IT ???

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    Mute One Human Being
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 2:29 PM

    I understand the need for some administrative staff but during the amalgamation of the Hse lots of areas where merged thus creating multiple areas with staff doing the same job. While getting two letters to remind you of an appointment is good. The vast wastage is what’s is dragging the health board into overspending each year.

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    Mute Scarr
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 2:30 PM

    Any particular % of admin staff you would like to sack? It’s normally a 50% figure people pick out of their ar$e when they raise this overly simplistic solution to a complex problem.
    Does anyone honestly think that chopping a bunch of admin heads is going to cure health? If you do, you’re a bit of a plonker.

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    Mute Marguerite Hoiby
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 5:05 PM

    what you state here that admin staff do can be achieved with proper IT systems in place.

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    Mute Triona Murphy
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 9:46 PM

    Couldn’t agree more.a careful look at all the grade 8s however…..??

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    Mute Ryan Carroll
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 12:44 PM

    This is the same tinkering around the edges that M Martin took credit for…certain illnesses have gone down….er…ok great…but we were expecting a big set of reforms lads and so in contrast to that your improvements look pretty small.
    Remember the UHI plan? Were the only developed country besides US that does not have universal healthcare. I think even if it was a public insurance option (where people could keep separate private insurance for private hospitals if they wanted) of 400-500 year and then EVERYTHING is covered people would still like that, hell I’d take even the messy inefficient universal private insurance plan over what we have now.
    We don’t even need to do insurance at all. The UK has a centrally funded system so does Canada, why can’t we just do that, phase that in, and leave people to buy private insurance for private hospitals separate if they so choose…everyone happy then.

    But before we do UI we need a minister with the balls to tackle the staff duplication and triplication that came when the HSE was created. The HSE was meant to REPLACE all the health boards but instead they MERGED them. The unions seem to object to even internal transfers. The second cafe in one hospital closed and they wanted to transfer the staff to a cafe at another hospital, but they refused and wanted to stay in the same hospital…so they put them in admin…people with catering experience…in admin…where two of them promptly delayed my cancer diagnoses by 4 weeks. We need to tackle this inefficiency and get UH in place, I wonder how much we’d save towards the extra 4b UH would cost if we got rid of all that surplus staff or even assigned them more efficiently?
    This is one thing that puts me off about politics there are never any bold or innovative ideas it’s all small scale thinking and tinkering.

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    Mute David Burke
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 12:58 PM

    Why not leprechauns ?

    400-500 Euro insurance which covers everything? That doesn’t exist. Wish it did, it doesn’t.

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    Mute Scarr
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 2:33 PM

    Ryan – they’ve looked at the Dutch model of uhi, a system the Dutch are getting rid of; so that’s not a good start.
    The figures for providing uhi, when we were all still talking about it, wouldn’t be far off 3 times the amount you propose in your post.

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    Mute David Burke
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 12:56 PM

    HIQA is a pain in the hole but great. Most places have HIQA reports online. You can look at nursing home or disability centres and see how they do.

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    Mute Kerry Blake
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 12:50 PM

    He would be more believable if he had taken up the nurses offer to do a hospital shift with them. At least some might think he knows what he is talking about.

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    Mute David Burke
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 12:58 PM

    He was a doctor though….

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    Mute significantrisk
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 1:00 PM

    Nonsense. A doctor doing a nursing shift is a liability. Leo served his time on the front lines – showboating and pretending to be a nurse, getting in the way, would only hinder any effort at improving care.

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    Mute Kerry Blake
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 1:31 PM

    It would mean he would experience the conditions the nurses deal with now not when he qualified. No one asked him to be a nurse just observe a bit of a difference .

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    Mute significantrisk
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 1:55 PM

    He’s well aware of the conditions our nursing colleagues work under.

    Play acting at being a nurse wouldn’t change that.

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    Mute Rory Naughton
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 2:06 PM

    I think it should be noted that he worked in medicine for a brief period of time(2 or 3 years?) and, as he mentioned, it was in a different era (pre 2007) in a very different environment. The healthcare system is far more stretched with staff morale far lower now than it was then.
    He also seems to be somewhat economical with the truth.
    For example: there is some dedicated ambulance transfer services but not the way he paints it. So there’s a neonatal service run by the 3 Dublin NICUs. Then there’s a single critical care ambulance which, unless things have changed in the past year, is run 9-5 Mon-Fri again from Dublin. Otherwise little has changed with the hospital losing a doctor/nurse for the duration of the transfer.

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    Mute Zoë Georgina
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 12:46 PM

    Not entirely sure where he’s getting his figures on long-term disabilities…

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    Mute Richard Armstrong
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 3:25 PM

    errr “in patient transfer teams” dont exist – i’ve had to do that

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    Mute edel ryan
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 4:33 PM

    The dogs on the street know the health “service” is a DISGRACE

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    Mute Andrew Halpin
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    Oct 23rd 2014, 11:50 PM

    Yeah he’s got top people formerly of the department of justice helping to run things the new way.

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