Mr. Ronnie Downes:

I will go first and some of my colleagues may wish to come in on some of the points. The Deputy has made it some important and interesting remarks and I will give a brief response. His final point about the need to do things, including planning, infrastructure and delivery, in alignment rather than in a piecemeal way is very much in the spirit of what we are trying to achieve in the national development plan and by aligning it with the national planning framework to accomplish our objectives.

In his comments about housing, the Deputy said that emigration may not be as attractive or viable an option for young people today as it might have been for previous generations. I will not go into the sociology of it but what we are trying to accomplish, including in the context of the national development plan and the national planning framework, is to make Ireland as attractive, enjoyable and productive a place to live as it can possibly be and one that bears favourable comparison with any other country around the world. If that in turn impacts the dynamics of emigration, so be it.

I take the point about the need to fund Irish Water. As I mentioned in my response to Deputy Canney, we are examining the provision of resources for Irish Water in the context of the NDP.

The Deputy made the point that there was disagreement about the location of the national children's hospital. Part of what we are trying to accomplish in the revisions to the public spending code is to provide an informed, objective and analytical professional assessment of the different options that may apply for any project and to make that information available to the decision makers at political level so that informed decisions can be made.