Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Ashmore. We welcome the work that he and his team are doing in that area.

I welcome the establishment of an EIB office here in December. Mr. Andrew McDowell said last year that if he was giving Ireland a report card, it would read "could do better". Last year, the EIB group invested €950 million in the country through the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund. The target this year is to exceed €1 billion. Ultimately, there is not a big difference between €950 million and €1 billion. What would Mr. McDowell assess our position as being at this point? Is it still "could do better", would it be "doing a little bit better" or where does he see us with regard to being able to access funding? It is clear, from his words, that we have underperformed. We are below the European average for accessing money from these supports despite the fact that we have the lowest capital investment in the European Union.