Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister will appreciate that we are coming off a very low base in terms of capital; it virtually went off a cliff. I completely agree with the Minister in terms of the delivery of projects, and that is about ensuring that a proper cost-benefit analysis is done upfront, which was not done of many projects in the past. Capital investment for our country is hugely important, as is achieving a balance between capital and current expenditure, but if projects stand up financially, there are no restrictions on us under the fiscal rules making that additional capital expenditure available.