Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 8 October 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Macroeconomic Forecasting: Discussion with Department of Finance

7:40 pm

Mr. John McCarthy:

Suppose we were to increase investment by €100 million by purchasing trains. That has zero impact on the economy because the margin of propensity to import of trains is 1. We do not produce them in Ireland and import them from Spain, France and so forth. If we were to calculate in terms of the building and construction side the multiplier, by definition, would be higher.