Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Deputy O'Donnell is right. We have to ensure that the investments we make will be strategic in terms of creating jobs in the medium term but that they will not be short-term jobs. The outcome has to be an important contribution to our recovery. There would be different manifestations of this. In the stimulus plan I introduced last year I announced what people would describe as traditional investments, for example, in roads, co-funded by the European Investment Bank and others, including the Council of Europe bank, health centres and justice facilities such as Garda stations. The investments were used to build what is needed for a modern economy to operate but they were traditional investments. The more recent €150 million stimulus plan I announced last week will be invested in relatively traditional areas. It provides an additional €50 million for schools that were not on the list, €50 million for non-national roads which will help rural Ireland to survive and thrive, and €50 million for retrofitting local authority houses, which is a little novel. That investment, which will allow 25,000 local authority houses to be insulated, will have a long-term impact on reducing energy costs. We estimate it will be of the order of €400 a year for those families in social housing. I hope we can have different types of plans and I am writing to every line Minister in regard to looking at objective proposals that might be funded.

NewERA is a new concept. Ms Eileen Fitzpatrick has not had an opportunity to make a contribution yet and I invited her to come with us today to give members a flavour of what NewERA has done. She might answer the Deputy's question on Aer Lingus's Heathrow slots, if that is agreeable to members.