Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The national development plan is based on a ten-year period. It is projected to spend a set amount money and get a set amount of projects done. There is great excitement when ones sees a project one has been looking at is in the national development plan. Regarding the money to implement the plans, the national development plan is a list with budgets added but how much money is spent each year, or targeted to be spent each year is a bit different. We talk about the construction industry. It is at full capacity at the moment, but many of the people who could help us increase our capacity are working elsewhere and will not come back here to work unless they have certainty of continuity of work. What happens is we go in cycles and we are up on the top of the tree and the next thing we are all burnt on the ground.

How can we keep a relatively straight line on expenditure and delivery over a ten-year period rather than shoot up to the stars and back down again, going down below the line and back up, with recessions and boom and bust? How can that be controlled?