Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Professor McHale and his colleagues. These exchanges have proven to be very worthwhile, and IFAC has done the State some service since it was established, for which I am thankful. It takes a certain amount of character and conviction to come here consistently and throw cold water on us all the time. This is what Professor McHale needs to do. It is important we continue to meet the financial architecture deficit reduction targets. In terms of the overall framework within which we operate, the rules are very good for an economy that moves along seamlessly year after year. However, for an economy such as ours, which has been through a very substantial economic shock and in which capital investment was paused very substantially for several years, has Professor McHale any sympathy with the view that economies need to catch up in terms of the infrastructure deficits that were not attended to during those years, particularly in the area of public expenditure?