Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The figure moved to €4.1 billion because we made available a further €1.5 billion, or €500 million for each year from 2019 to 2021. My expectation from dealing with many large infrastructural projects, be they roads, public transport, schools or homes, is that, due to the length of the planning process and the need to go to tender, the large expenditure on many of them will not begin until that point anyway.

As to whether health expenditure will grow, the answer is "Yes" even though it is now at its highest level ever. There are challenges in the form of the cost of new drugs and the nature of our demographics. Our high fertility and birth rates compared with the rest of the EU have been of unbelievable benefit to our country, and many of our citizens are living for longer. For these demographic reasons alone, health expenditure will continue to grow. We must ensure it grows at a rate that meets the needs of those who depend on our health services while allowing us to make progress on many other priorities as well.

Regarding the self-employed tax credit, a €700 move in the income earned credit would cost €59 million in the first year and €106 million in a full year.

As to the effect of changes in unemployment levels on social protection policy, the then Department of Social Protection, which was led strongly by Deputy Burton across the period in question, went to great lengths to ensure benefits would be available to people facing the difficulty of being unemployed during the economic crisis. If we move to a position of full employment in the coming years and our labour market continues to be healthy, I expect there to be a strong focus on payments and policies that directly feed through to reductions in poverty levels among certain cohorts of our society. I hope this focus will become more eminent in the coming years.