Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to hear Deputy Tóibín affirm he is a left-of-centre politician and generally in favour of the State doing more. I hardly ever hear him say a good word about the State so it is refreshing to hear him acknowledge the State can occasionally play a positive role.

On the allegations he has made regarding the delivery of capital works programmes and the progress that has been made, the problems we have had with the national children's hospital are well documented and, over time, we have outlined the reforms we have put in place to deal with the difficulties that arose in delivering that project. However, I hear few people question the ability of the State to build schools on time and on budget in the way communities want. I do not hear much criticism of the State's ability to deliver road projects and public transport projects when the funding is in place to deliver them. The State can deliver these in a timely way and within budget. I would give as an example the work that is under way in our technological universities, where really important and big projects, including projects at Technological University Dublin, have been delivered in the way the country and local communities would want. The Deputy is adroitly picking out some projects we have had difficulty with but we have a whole variety of smaller and medium-sized projects that have been delivered in the way the Oireachtas would want.

The Deputy has, on a few occasions, attempted to put a question to the Minister of State regarding resources for An Bord Pleanála. The information on that issue will be supplied by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, when he brings forward his Supplementary Estimate. However, we have significantly increased funding for An Bord Pleanála to allow it to increase the resources it has to deal with planning applications and to do so on time. The truth is we did have difficulties. The board had challenges in making decisions on important projects on time. The Government has responded by reorganising An Bord Pleanála and by significantly increasing the funding available to it, leading to a very significant increase in its headcount.