Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

What we will face in the coming year on the capital side will be interesting. We have to carry out a review of the capital plan. Since we were expected to get back to being in the good boys book, to use the technical term, we were supposed to get some freedom. The idea was that in 2019, 2020 and 2021 the fiscal space would open up for capital expenditure. That was my understanding. That may be at risk now if some of the indicators before us prove to be correct.

It takes some years to ramp up capital spending. Perhaps the job of this Parliament is to assess the options and come up with the priorities on capital spending. That is what we do in housing, transport, energy, broadband and so on. There is no shortage of it. These factors are affecting the productivity of the State in a real way now. Transport at this stage has reached gridlock. That means productivity loss. It is certain; it is a question of physics or mathematics. If there is gridlock, we are goosed. Therefore, we must spend in the short term but we do not have the money for it under the current capital plan.

I did not understand the trick in the speech from Professor McHale. It is in the fiscal assessment report as well. The idea is that if we put it into a separate box, it may give us the ability to account for it in a different way or to protect it if we get into a crunch. Can Professor McHale explain that mechanism?