Mr. Ciar?n Devane:

I share the view that there are things we can do to speed up the process. One of the things we have done is to make sure the programmes that have to be signed off by the board get looked at by the audit and risk committee first. They come to the board with a recommendation. It is only a little bit of the time, but it takes that bit out of the time. That kind of re-engineering of the process is something at which we are looking at the moment. To say the obvious on the capital programme, we cannot give everybody everything they want because there is not the money to do that. It does take a great deal of negotiation to get the capital plan approved. There has been much engagement with the Department in recent weeks and days. The Cathaoirleach will have possibly seen a comment in the newspaper that we are expecting that imminently. The Minister will be at our board meeting this afternoon, so we will find out what the decisions are at that meeting.

The overall frustration overall about projects that feel like no-brainers and whether we can get them through quickly is something we need to look at. This means a couple of things. One is that they need to be grounded in the overall strategy rather than only a particular institution, wherever it is. It has to fit the direction of travel, obviously. Once those things are done, however, it would be good to be able to say here is a multiyear programme of what we are going to do in a particular area. I would be optimistic that we are getting there, but let us see what happens at the board meeting today.