Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 9 March 2022
Committee on Budgetary Oversight
Pre-Stability Programme Update Scrutiny: Economic and Social Research Institute
Dr. Kieran McQuinn:
It will be a challenge, especially in light of the Ukrainian situation. Another important related point is that the capital amount we are allocating will not go as far as it would have simply because cost pressures will eat into that. The tangible output we would have got in terms of the number of housing units or other tangible outputs you would get from spending that capital allocation will now probably be less than what we originally intended or forecast simply because of these cost pressures, which will eat into the allocation amount.
We spoke about the construction sector earlier. Some capacity constraints will emerge there. They are already there but in terms of scaling up production, for example, housing output, there will challenges in meeting those kind of targets. In terms of some of the other infrastructural projects, it is probably the case that the cost pressures we will see emanating from the crisis will eat into that capital allocation to a greater degree than we would have previously thought, so the amount of goods and services, particularly tangible goods, we get from the capital allocation will be less than we envisaged at the time we allocated that expenditure. I do not know if Dr. O'Toole wants to add anything.