Mr. Seamus Coffey:

We do not get involved in the choices made between different areas. Prior to budget 2017, we reviewed the planned increases in capital spend and what had happened over the previous decade. It appeared that Ireland had a level of public capital spend that was low in European terms and ranked us towards the bottom of international comparisons. This could, potentially, have led to a public capital stop that was not appropriate for the economy and the growth in the economy. We reviewed the increases that were planned for public capital spend and we came to the conclusion that they were appropriate and should be followed through. We examined the medium-term objectives of the national development plan. There were substantial increases. Capital spend increased from €4 billion in 2013-14 to approximately €8 billion this year, which means it has doubled. We did not assess whether it was appropriate to meet our infrastructure needs, bottlenecks or climate change actions but we came to the conclusion that it was appropriate given the low levels we were coming from and that it was up to the political process to decide how that money should be spent.