Ms Eileen Fitzpatrick:

It might be helpful if I were to summarise what NewERA is doing and then I will deal with the question on the Heathrow slots. The work of NewERA must be considered in three parts. The first part is the financial oversight of the commercial semi-State sector. That semi-sector generates approximately €6 billion in revenue, has almost €14 billion in capital employed and is a very important economic player. We would assist the operating Departments in examining capital proposals coming out of the semi-State sector, proposals for borrowings and seeing how sensible they are in the context of Government, in other words, in the context of what financial return the shareholder will get. That is very much in keeping with best international practice. There are shareholder executives in most of the Scandinavian countries, in the UK and in France. We have interacted with most of them and it is also recommended best practice from the OECD. We have created in the past 12 to 18 months a protocol of operating with the commercial semi-State bodies. We are reviewing their corporate plans and investment plans in the main.

The second and equally critical part of the work is that we have been asked to ensure that Government investment plans in economic infrastructure are implemented and we have been asked to assist in the funding of those. Irish Water is probably a good example of that. If we can fit in infrastructure we can generate economic activity and have a competitive economy. In the case of Irish Water, capital expenditure is running at a certain level with the setting up of this new Irish publicly-owned authority. It will be capable of raising debt at some point in its future and increasing the level of capital in the State applied to water infrastructure, which is crucial in attracting certain key industries into Ireland.