Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister said yesterday at the Central Bank that the eurozone Finance Ministers want to support "productivity enhancing public investment" to use his phrase. The committee has done a great deal of work on the capital programme. The Minister confirmed that we will reach the medium-term projection by 2018. That should allow more space in budget 2019 for capital investment given that the convergency margins, etc., will not apply. What is the Minister doing at European level to follow up and what is the Government doing to allow flexibility around capital expenditure? Is the Minister considering relaxing the fiscal rules? Is it the case that he needs support for capital expenditure not for current expenditure in terms of, to again use his phrase, "productivity enhancing public investment"?