Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

A billion?

Better still. One was €500 million and the other was €1 billion or something. In hard cash paid out, what have we spent to date? How many years has the scheme been up and running? Ultimately, it is the payout that counts. Should we be opening it up more quickly in order to get more projects into the pipeline? Projects are very slow to get off the ground. There are issues that arise with cost variations and so on. My view is that we need to get it done.

There is a lot of talk about the cost of capital. Capital looks very expensive now. In hindsight, however, it always looks very cheap. In about ten or 15 years' time, the cost of capital development now will look cheap because it does not go down over time. There may be a small dip over a year or two, but then they rise higher than ever. If we want to save money on capital expenditure, we should spend it now. Ultimately, delays cost us more and more money.

Rural regeneration and development funding has been agreed for the passing loop in Oranmore.