Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

We are supporting tourism by reducing the air travel tax to €3, and the DAA will be incentivising carriers to bring in additional airline passengers.

I have made the point about the capital investment programme. It is critical. While difficult decisions have been made in this budget, and further challenging measures will be put in place over the lifetime of the four year plan, we have retained the vast majority of the benefits of the boom.

The tax measures over the four years of the national recovery plan will bring us to 2006 levels. Spending levels will be brought to 2007-08 levels. However, spending on the productive capacity of the economy will continue apace.

During the good times, we used the fruits of the boom not only to reduce our national debt to very low levels but we also invested wisely in the productive capacity of the economy - in schools, roads, public transport, communications, research and innovation, and housing. We retain this infrastructure, and that is helping to grow the economy once again. Anyone visiting this country now would see how much better served we are by that infrastructure compared to the 1980s.

We had one of the highest rates of public investment in Europe over the past ten years and we still have that now.

We retain a high level of capital investment by international and historical standards - nearly €16.5 billion in the period up to 2014. That will be invested in projects which support economic growth and employment.

Next year alone we will invest €4.7 billion. This will allow several new road projects to start, support major regeneration projects in Ballymun and Limerick, sustain the school building programme, and progress high priority health projects, particularly in the mental health area.

See this speech in context