Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am not criticising Mr. McDowell for that, because there is an issue with Ireland. It is not just the State. These are private corporations that apply for funding from the EIB. To come up to the European average, we should be at approximately €1.4 billion per annum, yet we have the worst percentage of public investment in the European Union. The European average is made up of countries which have large drawdowns from the EIB but which also have large public investment programmes. Should there not be a specific policy within the EIB in light of the fact that we have gone through a private investment famine and a public investment drought over the past decade? Is it not the case that the EIB needs to be much more ambitious in reaching that target? Four or five years is still only to get to where the European average stands. Many European countries do not have the problems which we have and which Mr. McDowell identified with regard to water, transport and housing. These are all crises that have either arrived or are about to present themselves in a very acute way.