Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for their participation and their report. It is an extensive and important report. I have some questions. On cohesion, Mr. Murphy mentioned that we do not feature so much in that any more. We realise the reason is that we have achieved a certain level of economic development. Are there any other countries that stand out and that still avail of cohesion funds, to a greater or lesser extent? What, if anything, have we in common with them?

Would Mr. Murphy like to expand on child poverty, which was studied? A report was done in the middle of the downturn, which was a serious, difficult and challenging time for everybody. To what extent, if it is known, has the situation altered in the meantime? In respect of revenue and the EU budget in 2017, €139 billion etc., and the GNI calculation - which is moving away from gross domestic product, GDP, and gross national product, GNP - will Mr. Murphy give us some idea as to what difference it makes for Ireland to use GNI as opposed to GDP or GNP? I do not necessarily want Mr. Murphy to go into a major detailed explanation but there are some obvious comparisons.

There are obvious improvements. Other people wish to speak and I do not want to cover their territory. One thing has come to my attention in recent times in respect of spending and banking throughout Europe. It has been said by some people that regulation was non-existent when the Irish and European economies crashed. Some say there has now been an extreme reaction in the other direction, to the extent that restrictions are impeding necessary growth. It might be wise to make a comment on that.

My last point is on broadband, which the European Court of Auditors has already studied. That is a moot question now. It has been ongoing in this country for some considerable number of years. I was spokesperson on that area myself several years ago when much attention was drawn to broadband. It is still an issue. It still has not been concluded in the way we would have expected. I do not want Mr. Murphy to make any political comments, but the European Court of Auditors might have a perspective on the extent spending and policy at European level is likely to affect it. Another issue that causes us quite a problem in this country is the issue of housing. I refer to the degree to which housing has been hit by inflation as a result of a lack of competition in the market for new house building. That is the only thing which affects the prices.

The purchase of existing houses does not affect that, as we all know, whereas extra houses in the housing stock do. We are told all the time that European restrictions impede the extent to which the State may get involved in the direct building of local authority houses. This issue has been tossed out to us on a regular basis but I have strong reservations about it. It is in the national interest to access the necessary funds, of which there are considerable amounts available at low-interest rates of almost zero. If ever there was a situation where it was necessary, in the national interest of our economy, to avail of well-priced funds, it is now. There are many reasons, such as making the economy competitive and improving our society in order that we, as an economy, can develop, as opposed to a situation where a large portion of the family income - up to 50% in some cases - goes towards paying for the mortgage or rent, as the case may be.