Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy has named the seven members of the commission which will control and manage the National Pensions Reserve Fund.
The fund, to be managed by the National Treasury Management Agency, is to build up assets to partly finance the Exchequer cost of social welfare and public service pensions from 2025, when the State's pensions bill is expected to rise sharply because of demographic changes.
Under legislation setting up the fund, which was passed in December, the Government will contribute 1% of GNP to the fund each year. It already contains £5bn from the sale of Telecom Eireann and 1% of GNP from 1999 and 2000.
The seven members are: Elan chairman and CEO Donal Geaney; Robert Curran, currently second secretary at the Department of Finance; ESB's general manager pensions Brid Horan; Commerzbank chairman Dr Martin Kohlhaussen; Donald Roth of the Washington-based Emerging Markets Partnership; Merrill Lynch chairman Daniel Tully; and NTMA chief executive Dr Michael Somers, who will be an ex officio member.
The commission will be independent of Government and will be able to determine and implement an investment strategy for the fund.
A Department of Finance statement said the Minister noted that commission members were likely to have conflicts of interest occasionally, but said procedures for dealing with such conflicts had been set out in the legislation.
