Mr. Gerard Brady:

I would not agree with that. I do not think we will agree one way or the other on it. A lot of the infrastructural priorities, particularly the focus on housing in recent years, come from employers saying their workers and the people they are trying to hire are having real trouble accessing the rental market and housing. We work closely with lots of groups and bodies across the trade union movement and the community and voluntary pillar on lots of these issues because they are shared. Perhaps not all, but about 90% of our infrastructural priorities are societal objectives rather than business objectives. We have had a big focus in the past seven or eight years on the sense that quality of life is one of our biggest challenges. Ireland's biggest attractor for companies is skills. We do not get people to come here to work or keep skilled people in the country if there is not a high level of quality-of-life investment in areas like housing, better public realm and better communities. There are areas where we have individual infrastructural priorities that just affect business but there are a lot of areas - even the vast majority - where they are beneficial for the business community and the broader communities in which they are situated.

I will ask Mr. Sweeney to comment on democratic accountability and planning.