Mr. Seamus Coffey:

It is hard to isolate different parts of spending and earmark them as being funded by a particular revenue source. The Government accounts are an overall package of levers that move up and down. Previously we have looked at capital spending, which should not just be something that happens if there is a temporary revenue source. There were previous proposals to link capital spending to the disposal of the State's shares in the banks. We also received proposals suggesting that corporation tax should be used for capital spending. Capital spending is something the Government and the State should do on an ongoing basis. We should be looking for the right level of capital spending and to fund that in a sustainable fashion, not looking to have capital spending dependent on volatile revenue sources and perhaps use it in an inappropriate fashion. We have a surge in corporation tax now as the economy is performing quite well. Does this mean that we undertake a raft of public capital projects simply because the money is there? Perhaps it would be more appropriate to set that money aside, put capital spending on a more stable footing and even increase it in the future if there is a slowdown in the economy and an excess supply of labour. When the crash came in 2008 and some 200,000 people lost their jobs in the construction sector, the Government exacerbated that by cutting the public capital budget by 66%. It would have been great if it had increased it.