John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We do and we are in agreement on that. A final point is on long-term planning. Deputy Boyd Barrett regards himself as a socialist but I am not. As I recall, one thing the Soviets used to get right was the 20-year plan. I was a child at the time so I do not have much recollection of that era. In Britain, following from Brexit, they are talking about a 30-year horizon on capital investment, with an assessment carried out every five years. Is there more detail on that, as it is an area we have never been very good at? I was a member of a local authority for years, as was Deputy Boyd Barrett, and local authorities have a five-year plan for the development of infrastructure. That is much too short as an overall timeframe for planning the economic development of any region, county or city. If the witnesses have specific suggestions in that regard, we would certainly welcome them. There has been far too little long-term economic planning.

I accept the point regarding obvious bottlenecks in the Irish economy and the establishment of a rainy day fund. I sat for a year and a half on the banking inquiry, for which I got little thanks, but what was emphasised by many of our witnesses was the need to promote anti-cyclical investment in the economy in general. The witnesses have spoken about how when we went into recession, the capital spending was first to be cut but that should not be the case. Just as it should not be the case when recession hits, when things improve and bottlenecks in areas like housing have been dealt with to some extent at least, we should establish such a fund to smooth out some economic ups and downs that we know we will face. Are there are any specific points on that? We welcome any views on long-term planning.