Mr. Seamus Coffey:

As Mr. Tutty said, we have assessed the changes in capital spending. We look at it as taking us from a position of being relatively low in EU terms, as we came out of the crisis, to now moving to middle and maybe high in EU terms. The concern is that we would try to do everything - try to ramp up capital spending, try to increase current spending and try to reduce or erode the tax base. These are some of the problems we have faced before. Therefore, we feel it is appropriate that capital spending has been increased but it should not be done at the same time that we try to do everything else. One of the concerns would be that if capital spending has got back to what one might consider normal levels, in the next downturn or the next fiscal crisis, that is the area that will be cut again. We often turn to the pro-cyclical issues, and as capital spending is the one that can be perhaps adjusted that bit quicker, it exacerbates that situation. Rather than, as Deputy Eamon Ryan suggested earlier, increasing capital spending at a time when the economy might need support, we have a history of doing the opposite and cutting back on capital spending just at the time when the economy could do with that level of Government activity.