Mr. Fergal O'Brien:

I will address some of the Deputy's questions. We included costings, which can be found in the annex to our submission document for last year. The crucial point in respect of priorities is that we need to resize the envelope. We fully accept the day-to-day pressures on services that must be delivered, for example, health, education and social services. We continue to make the argument for tax reforms that would pay for themselves over time. The best way for the State to finance all of this is to take the capital envelope out of the equation. If we do so, we will have far more resources to address day-to-day needs. That is by far the most important issue. I empathise both with the committee given the challenge it faces and the Government given the decisions it must make. It is impossible to meet the public service needs of the State, with its growing population, within the current budgetary framework. Removing the capital envelope from the budgetary framework would allow us to address the most urgent priorities and start to build for the future in a way that will support a sustainable economy.

On our Dublin focus, as I stated, IBEC is a national organisation. However, having 49% of economic activity in the State inside the M50 is sub-optimum. It is not good for the Dublin region or the rest of the country. We want to see a stronger, more prosperous capital with the type of infrastructure it needs but Dublin is being choked, which is not good for the city. This is not about spreading activity outside of Dublin but about ensuring future growth is more equitable in its distribution. It is not about taking things out of Dublin but about giving the capital the infrastructure and services it needs to be a global city. The reality is that cities will be the future in the sense that the wealth and prosperity of nations will very much depend on them. We need Dublin to be as good as it can be and this will require a more equitable distribution of the focus of economic activity as between Dublin and the regions.

IBEC is concerned about Brexit. While we have not yet seen many of its impacts, apart from in retail and on food and some other traditional manufacturing industries, we are concerned that we will face a significant dislocation. Much of the commentary on Brexit focuses on the proportion of Irish exports that go to the United Kingdom. This significantly undervalues the nature of our economic linkages with the UK to the extent that exports to Britain are much more job intensive than exports to other countries because of the nature of the industries involved. Brexit will cost many more jobs that would be reflected in the proportion of trade with the UK. We are, therefore, concerned about the issue.