Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Has the Minister a perspective on that in respect of the need to ensure ongoing capital investment for infrastructural purposes from a stability and growth perspective? The report is anaemic. It is a little like the teacher using the red pen to mark the copybook. That does not necessarily educate or offer solutions to the student as to where he or she has gone wrong or outline whether the teacher's own practices could be better. The report seems to be very much a desktop exercise. I do not criticise the originators of the report but the limiting factors of the Stability and Growth Pact in terms of our ability to invest more in capital expenditure for infrastructural purposes to boost the domestic economy is a bugbear of mine. How are the politics of that being played out at European Council level? We are facing uncertain times and there is turbulence ahead. It is not enough for the authors to describe the scenario here; there must be more about where the European Commission or the Council intervene to assist us to meet the Stability and Growth Pact and other targets in order that we can meet the challenges of the so-called "clouds on the horizon", to use their phrase. The pact is too restrictive. It does not allow the Government to operate within a wider envelope to boost the European economy further and to boost the domestic economy, in particular. What is the Minister's perspective on that?