Mr. Brian Cowen:

I think during my time as Taoiseach, in my Administration, unfortunately, we were in a period of economic retrenchment, so it wasn't a question of providing expansive opportunities for industry to lobby. It was about identifying those things that were important, that needed to be ... continue to need investment and the fact that we continued with 5% GNP as part of our capital budget was important. That was something that the CIF, for example, would be interested in, as the Construction Industry Federation, in terms of the jobs that that could sustain and the replacement it was making, in terms of a public capital programme, as against a diminished private housing sector. So, in other words, there are some times when people put forward proposals. If they're consonant with Government policy objectives, you use that expertise to the benefit of the country and, hopefully, come up with policies that are responsive and which have ... are effective and bring a public good, as well as, obviously, being welcomed by sectoral interests who have a legitimate interest in some aspects of what you're doing.