Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I started off by saying that because of these constraints, we are not able to make what any person would conclude to be sound investment for the medium and long term. That was my point. The Minister is acknowledging that investment in the arts is good and brings a return but that we may not be able to do it. The same argument could be made about third level education. Everybody is shouting for it. The Minister will say that he acknowledges it would be a good move to invest more in our universities and in our schools but that we may not be able to do it. We certainly have not done it in housing, and it is questionable whether we will be able to do it, but fiscal rules were cited as a reason we could not do the large-scale direct public programme for which some of us have been asking. We cannot do it on housing, the arts or forestry, which never gets a mention but is very important. We cannot do it under all those headings, even though there is an acknowledgement that it would be sensible and sound in the medium to long term. Is there not something wrong with that thinking? That is my point.