Professor Peter Clinch:

On the funding of capital expenditure and expenditure rules, the council's position has been that we are aware this is a very complex area. The committee will have greater expertise than we will in terms of how that works. The furthest we go is that we have to find funding for capital expenditure so if choices have to be made it is going to be a movement in the way we go about expenditure and how we view that within the rules, which is complex and, second, choices and those choices are difficult. Demands for wage increases are understandable, for example, but capital expenditure which will reduce the demands for those wage increases is also necessary. It is about creating this circle between saying that wage demands are driven by an increased cost of living and companies find it more difficult to pay high wages if the costs of business are high. That is why, as a council, we address all of those areas. It is not this committee's direct concern, but it is a concern for the Government and the Oireachtas generally to ask how we address the issues of costs and how do we deal with the housing crisis. How do we find ways within this complex area of the expenditure rules to make the case that returns will come from the investment in capital?