David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My last question relates to capital investment. I do not think it will come as a surprise to Professor Clinch that I fully agree with his view of decoupling capital investment from the fiscal rules as much as we can to get more flexibility. The problem is that we already have flexibility where we can smooth capital spend over a four year period. Does Professor Clinch believe it was a mistake, for example, not to take the opportunity in last year's budget to take better advantage of that? It would seem a bit foolish if we are going to ask Europe to give us more flexibility but do not use the flexibility that we have. Given that there are very low levels of capital investment in comparison with other European countries which is a problem in health and housing, but I would also imagine in roads, flood relief and those types of areas, if we do not get the flexibility that we need - and we can articulate those arguments but obviously we are at the mercy of those in Europe - should we make greater use of the flexibilities which we currently have? Finally, there was no mention of public sector pay. We do not have any provisions for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021. How much of a challenge is that going to be in terms of the overall fiscal space and the need to deal with and manage expectations in unravelling and unwinding financial emergency measures in the public interest cuts? I think the cost of that would be about €1.4 billion.