Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My final question is on capital investment in general. We know the serious problems that Ireland is facing as we enter into a number of decades of demographic pressures. Those problems will present acutely in terms of our infrastructure, for example, the road network. There is a view that investment from the EIB has allowed member states to reduce public investment. For instance, building primary care centres is moved to the EIB and off the balance sheet, PPPs are undertaken, etc. That allows countries to keep public investment low, and Ireland is already at so dangerously low a level of public investment that the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has claimed that we are only maintaining our investment stock and not making new investments.

Has Mr. McDowell a view on the fiscal rules? I am clear on this matter. Hearing the various parties that campaigned and were cheerleaders for these rules now claim that they want them changed because they do not work for Ireland is interesting. However, there are flexibilities within the rules that have never been used, for example, the structural reform clause, which allows us not to break the rules, given that it is built into them, but to move away from our current path and make a serious public investment if we believe that it would make a return for the economy. In Mr. McDowell's role as vice president of the EIB, which examines these issues, does he believe that this option is something the State should be considering?