David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In a report in 2015, the IMF stated that in some economies, the private sector is largely displacing governments in providing economic infrastructure. It goes on to talk about energy, transport and water. Ireland is cited as one example where it is displacing Government spending. The reason for that is the limitations of the fiscal rules. This is one way around it because we cannot get around the flexibilities. Some of us are concerned about that if we are seeing more privatisation of funding for basic infrastructure. It is quite cheap for the State to borrow now, as Mr. O'Kelly said himself. NewERA was before the Joint Committee on Future Funding of Domestic Water Services and said that it had borrowing for water provision built into its programme up to 2021. It is actually cheaper for the State to do it. That is what I am talking about.