Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein)

That is all right. The budget is about choices, as we know. The Government has choices. A fifth of children are living below the poverty line. It is about choices and how to spend it. Instead of spending it on super junior Ministers, it could be spent on the people who need it the most.

Reference was made to the housing targets and other targets. I was listening to RTÉ Radio 1 coming up this morning and they talked about a major infrastructure project, water and sewerage for Dublin alone, that is at capacity. We talk about the houses that need to be built here in the coming years. There is not a hope if the infrastructure is not sorted. A year or two ago, that project was at €700 million; it is now at €1.4 billion to do that upgrade of water and sewerage for Dublin alone. Would we not be better in some cases borrowing the money? Even going back to simple things like the Navan rail line, that was €400 million in 2011; now it is €1 billion. For infrastructure projects, would we in some cases not be better borrowing the money and getting these projects done? They are projects that need to be done for the country. They will be done but the longer they are left the more they are costing an outright fortune.

I spoke the other day to a fella who shreds paper. He was telling me that the price of paper has gone down and that one of the first things you will see in a slowdown is the price of paper going down. Do the witnesses see any sign of a slowdown in the economy?

The number of companies that pay the most corporation tax is down to only a couple. Do we need to do more for startups and small and medium-sized enterprises and not depend so much in the longer term on these big companies? At some stage, we will be hit with them paying most of our corporation taxes. I would like to see an incentive for startup businesses and not to depend as much down the road on the bigger corporations.