Joe Neville (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is the opportunity cost of deciding not to build. The witnesses make good points. I am very conscious that the economy is going well but the biggest thing we have done is always to turn off the money tap when it is not going well, when ultimately that is when we need to be spending on capital projects. First of all, it gets cheaper and it keeps the economy going.

I was also interested to hear the points on comparisons with other countries. Do the witnesses have any information on benchmarking in Denmark, say, which Mr. Sweeney referred to? We do not do enough of that here and maybe we could learn more from our European partners on it. At the end of the day, these are all tendered out across the EU. We hear about Spain being able to do this and France being able to do that. What are the key difference between them and Ireland? What are the witnesses' thoughts on this?