Dr. Seán Healy:

We did a study within the past decade, which showed that Ireland had the lowest level of investment of any state in the European Union. What frightened us was not so much that we were at the lowest level, but that if we doubled our level of investment, it would still be the lowest in the EU. That shows how far we have fallen behind over the past decade. We are closing the gap somewhat. I do not deny the investment that is taking place but there are significant gaps in infrastructure in particular that are one-off in the context of expenditure. We should use the opportunity presented by windfall income from corporation tax or wherever else to address these gaps, rather than putting that money away. The danger in the event of another crash – I hope there will not be another one – is that we would repeat the mistake we made in that we would be likely to spend all of that money rescuing vulture funds rather than protecting vulnerable people.