Dr. Neil Walker:

In the words of Fr. Ted, "That would be an ecumenical matter". We will have €65 billion in corporation tax receipts and we need to make sure that we spent it, invest it or save it wisely. One could blow it all or one could put it away for a rainy day, but the best use for possibly non-recurring revenues is not to commit them to the things that will continue indefinitely.

We have an enormous national development plan. It originally started off as €118 billion, it went up to €160 odd billion, and with all the inflation, costs and whatever, it is probably well over €200 billion if one were to try to deliver everything that was conceived. It will not be delivered, largely because our planning system is a car crash and it desperately needs to be reformed. There will be a review of the national planning framework. There has already been a review of the national development plan. We need to invest and we need to unblock investment. At the moment the system is not fit for purpose but that is a job for a different committee.