Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I thank the witnesses for their presentation. The ESRI has spoken at length on a number of occasions about the need for capital investment. The committee is trying to reach perspectives in terms of the budget. The Irish rate of capital investment is low. Do the witnesses have a calculation of where we should move to in percentage and gross terms? Do we need to play catch-up with several billion euro in areas such as school investment, third-level investment, training and roads? In the context of regional development, some major and secondary road projects throughout the country genuinely need to be either completed or initiated.

If we are talking about development along the west coast, there is a need for better transport links, certainly if we want Limerick and Cork to be hubs. There are several other areas too but those two, as well as housing, are critical.

I understand the overall context for the air of caution in the Governor’s letter to the Minister for Finance but I was rather taken aback at the suggestion that the EU target for debt, the 60%, ought in the case of Ireland for reasons of risk to be much lower, by an unspecified amount. I refer to the letter released a couple of days ago. What would the witnesses' advice be in constructing the budget on where capital investment should fall? It needs to be increased. I thought a consensus was developing on that. There is a hike in construction costs but that is inevitable, given where the economy was three or four years ago, and should be expected. What would the witnesses suggest would be the appropriate figure for capital investment between now and 2021? Is the current rate very low and are there areas the witnesses would prioritise? I would certainly go for education, transport and other areas of critical investment, including regional investment, but I would like to hear their views on that.