Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

They are indeed, but it is not our money in them. We have recapitalised banks that were owned and we have a shareholding in them, but the volume of investment is not entirely our money and we need to make rational commercial decisions on lending. We are considering mechanisms to leverage additional resources through public-private partnerships. The banks, including AIB and other Irish banks, may well partner international banks, including the European Investment Bank in some of the projects that might proceed.

I agree entirely with Deputy Alan Farrell on the Luas BXD line. It did not make sense to build two Luas lines that did not interconnect. If one were to pick a project, it makes sense that it would at least be a unifying project. I regret that metro north will be postponed. To deal with the point about the economic case studies, these are in the line Departments and not in my Department. Enormous volumes of analysis are done on these big projects. Deputy Farrell also mentioned the money spent on Thornton Hall and the Minister for Justice and Equality is beside me. Very few of us on this side of the House were not shocked at the quantum of money used to buy a field. It was a peculiar way to go about a project to say "I have €40 million to spend. Who will sell me a field?" We cannot simply apply the logic that as we have wasted so much we should carry on regardless.

I am conscious of time.

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