Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are many projects in Ireland. Investment is usually for infrastructure projects when it is done by governments. One can divide infrastructure into social and economic infrastructure. The European Investment Bank, EIB, is already very heavily involved in both. For example, it is funding bundles of schools through a public private partnership, PPP. It is funding the provision of Garda barracks and courthouses. It is heavily involved in the funding of health centres. All those are within the general parameters of social infrastructure. It is also involved in the roads programme. That is the key area of investment for European Investment Bank funds over the past few years. If the Juncker proposal comes to fruition, which I hope it will, we will have quite a number of projects that could be activated. We could immediately start asking the National Roads Authority to complete the roads programme because while much work was done in the provision of motorways throughout the country, the roads network is not yet completed.