Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

We can have the mantra of Tommy Cooper economics: "Just like that." It will go away "just like that". Tell the bondholders to go away. Tell the ECB we do not need its money. The problem is that we do need its money. There is nobody else funding us. People are not fools; they want realistic debate. They will come to any committee to hear realistic debate. It is not an option, as the people of Greece and Portugal know, to tell the only people who are funding our gardaí, nurses and doctors to take a hike. That is not an option. Let us be realistic about making choices.

Let me deal with the specifics. We cannot afford the metro north in the medium term. We made choices in that regard. Of course it is a laudable project; we would love it. I would love to stand up, as some people in the past stood at these benches, and announced hundreds of millions here and hundreds of millions there. There was no end to what could be announced. However, we are living in different times. We have made strategic decisions to focus limited capital on jobs, schools and health care. For that reason, we are building 40 additional schools. Deputy McDonald says that is a drop in the ocean. We would love to build more, but we have not the wherewithal to do it, unless the Deputies would like us to cut deeper or tax more, because we cannot borrow more. These are the choices that people understand we are facing.

Specific points were made about the metro north. It is not affordable in the medium term, but it is on hold. People say we have spent a lot of money to date. Yes, we have. The previous Governments did, but we are not in a position to go ahead with it in the short term. Of the three big infrastructural projects - the metro north, the DART interconnector and the Luas line BXD - the Luas project, which will link the two Luas lines, will go ahead, but the metro north is not affordable, as we have said.

We are spending €1.6 billion on water. I agree entirely with the point made by Deputy Wallace. When I was Minister for the Environment I made a specific instruction on the matter. While engineers seek to build more dams and carry out more big projects, blocking the leaks is the priority. It is shocking and unacceptable that even after spending more than €1 billion we still have leakage from our mains of the order of 40%. I hope this will be the priority.

I will discuss local issues, including the New Ross bypass, with Deputy Wallace separately. I have made clear to my colleagues from the minute I went into my current Department that they should not spend money on projects that will not go ahead. I will examine specifically the land purchase issue to which Deputy Wallace referred and perhaps I will respond to him privately.

I have answered the issue raised by Deputy Daly on the metro north project. I do not have an answer on the specifics of the alternatives of various engineering solutions to deal with waste. That is an appropriate question to pursue with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government.

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