John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have a final question which Mr. Coffey might not expect to be asked and it is not a financial one. Those corporations carry quite degree of financial clout. They influence a great number of the budgetary decisions we make. Even at local authority level, they significantly influence the spend of a local authority on a day-to-day basis and that has been in a positive way up to now. If Mr. Coffey was able to measure the political clout those corporations have, what kind of political weight - I would not say moral authority - do they bring to decision-making, budgeting and budget planning in this country?