Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is a need for us to increase capital investment within the State but we have increased such investment this year compared to a year ago by €375 million or more than 10%. We have a plan in place to sustainably increase public expenditure in capital formation over the next number of years, and, later in the year, I will make a decision on the allocation of in excess €2 billion more in capital formation between now and 2021. The Taoiseach has also directed that he wants a longer-term capital plan drawn up across a ten-year horizon, which we will act on. I would like to find all the options I can to increase capital investment within the State because it is an essential element of how we respond to social need at home but also the changing environment abroad.

However, as I say regularly, we need to move away from looking at the amounts invested in the past and saying we will match them because rent-seeking went on across that period and assets were acquired that inflated prices and we should not tolerate a recurrence of those practices. While it is a little more technical, a different measure we should use is the percentage of our national income we are investing in capital formation.

The 50 year average for our country is approximately 3.8% to 4%. We are below that level at the moment but we have a path to get up to that point in the next few years.