Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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I was not suggesting that Social Justice Ireland is calling for a return to austerity. My apologies. I think Dr. Healy may have misunderstood my question. My question was more regarding the fact that he is clearly talking about an infrastuctural deficit we have had. I am in complete agreement in that regard. It left us on the back foot going into this crisis in terms of small classroom sizes, etc. We are now seeing a significant focus from the IMF and the ESRI on our infrastructural deficit in the context of housing. My concern relates to the commentators and politicians whose focus is not on this infrastructural deficit that we clearly have. I believe that if we focus on capital spending, such as in the area of housing - the ESRI stated we need to double our capital spend on housing - that will have a knock-on effect on employment, etc., as well as dealing with the housing crisis. Is Dr. Healy of the opinion that the narrative of those who are focusing simply on the deficit in the short term - I was going to say long term, which would have confused the whole thing even more - rather than focusing on these massive infrastructural deficits is in some way about bringing austerity in through the back door? My apologies. I think Dr. Healy thought I was suggesting he was in favour of a return to austerity, which is not what I was saying at all.