Private investors are not the only people who think the Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy is looking out for them. While individual savers are weighing up which of the array of special savings incentive accounts to take up, fund managers are fighting for a piece of the action in managing the new national Pension Reserve Fund.

The fund, set up by Mr McCreevy to ensure coverage of social welfare pensions into the future, will contain more than 8 billion euro by the end of this year, rising to 41 billion by 2025.

More than 600 applications to manage one of the 12 portions of the fund have been received from more than 200 investment managers - most from beyond these shores.

Hardly surprising. really. In today's straitened climate for fund managers, the commissions from managing a slice of such a mammoth fund will go some way to bolstering profits.

dcoyle@irish-times.ie