Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

As the Deputy will no doubt be aware, to be able to spend money one has to have it. One has to make it and be in a position to borrow it. The Government's strategy over the past couple of years was to try to ensure we would be in such a position. We certainly do not have as much money now as we had two, three or four years ago. Within these constraints, we are spending this year €6.5 billion on capital infrastructure projects, a little over €2 billion of which is on transport projects. The budgetary process will determine what we spend on them next year.

I have laid out my priorities on transport. The two major projects I want to see advanced are the interconnector and the metro, which will take six years to complete rather than the three and a half years we talked about. Money is and will be required for both projects from this year on.

Ironically, the fact that the interconnector and metro will take longer than expected to complete, for environmental and design reasons, will ensure that the next phases of the western rail corridor and the Navan line will proceed on time and perhaps a little ahead of time. It is an ill wind than blows no good.

I constantly stress the importance of capital investment, the capital programme and the transport programme to my colleagues. Deputy Broughan is quite right in his reference to the spread of expenditure. Next year will see the last of the payments. While the motorway schemes will be completed in 2010, some payments pertaining to them will come out of the 2011 budget. From then on and given the coming on line of the metro and interconnector and the continuation of the electrification of the Kildare line, the pendulum will swing back in favour of public transport rather than roads. That will continue until 2015.

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