Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Yes. My last point, and it follows from the previous one, but again I feel it is worth spelling out, is that one of the big ongoing current expenditures that is ballooning is the amount of money the State is forking out every year in housing assistance payment, HAP, rental accommodation scheme, RAS, and leasing arrangements. The same could probably be said about the outsourcing to the private sector of healthcare, although maybe it does not get talked about as much. If we increase spending and investment that reduces the ongoing, and in some cases ballooning, current expenditure by bringing down over the medium to long term the cost of housing by investing directly in public and affordable housing, is it fair to say that is a prudential expenditure, even if we are significantly increasing it, because it is going to reduce our financial exposure over the medium to long term?