Mr. Andrew McDowell:

Again, I can revert to the Deputy with exact figures on the proportion of climate action projects in Ireland. The Luas project we are financing is climate action, while the Dublin Port project has a significant climate action component. The national broadband plan that we will be financing subject to the finalisation of the tender process is 100% climate action, as is the social housing programme because of the energy efficiency requirements it includes. I can revert to the Deputy with the exact percentage but I would not be surprised if it is very close to the 40% figure. A significant proportion of our lending in Ireland is for climate action projects.

On the fiscal rules in EFSI, the Deputy is correct that there is a mention in the investment clause of the Stability and Growth Pact that national contributions to EFSI projects will be potentially disregarded. The difficulty with that in operation is that EFSI projects are high-risk projects. When we do projects under the Juncker plan they tend to be high-risk private sector projects because that was the market gap identified. Sovereign-backed infrastructure projects are not high-risk projects and therefore national co-financing of infrastructure tends not to count towards EFSI. This particular mention of EFSI in the Stability and Growth pact does not make much sense to us. It would make more sense to provide more flexible treatment of EIB finance projects more generally, rather than EFSI projects, as that would include a broader category of investments that the EIB makes, including lower-risk investments in infrastructure. That is an issue we are discussing with the European Commission in terms of the review of this clause in 2018.