Edward Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I thank the Taoiseach for answering my two earlier questions. I am delighted to see he agrees with me and supports those projects.

I have a very quick third question. I have brought up the issue of long-term budgeting with the relevant Ministers. This is not directly within the Taoiseach's remit but I will raise the issue again given his overall economic brief. We do budgets every year and a medium-term fiscal-structural plan, which covers five years. This is required by the EU although it is not really that detailed. We should be doing longer-term budgets. We have an ageing population and so on. We can plug in figures as to what pensions and so on are going to cost us in five or ten years' time. I ask the Taoiseach for his support for much longer-term planning. This would also involve guaranteeing funding for infrastructure projects over a ten- or 20-year plan but we should look much further ahead even with current or day-to-day spending and not get wrapped up in the annual budget cycle.