Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Surely there is an obligation on the part of any Government at any time to make the best use of the available resources in the best fashion in response to particularly important issues. In those circumstances, it was known that Europe did not want this country to go off-balance sheet with spending. I can understand why this might have been the case, but it does not take away from the fact that there was this option available where the private sector could have taken on the risk along with the public sector. I did not ask this question about the degree of risk accruing to the public and the private sectors in the event of something going wrong.