Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)

That is how detached from reality the Taoiseach has become. The increase in VAT is just one job creation wheeze, and another is the savage cut in capital expenditure as a proportion of total expenditure cut. I will again refer to a person in the media who has no axe to grind, Mr. Dan O'Brien, the respected economic commentator in The Irish Times. On 5 November, referring to the Government's plan outlining the capital and current expenditure cuts, he indicated:

The new plan contains little indication of radical departures. For instance, the Government has made much of the need to make "strategic" capital investments, both as a means of raising the economy's growth potential and of creating jobs. The coalition – rightly or wrongly – believes there are plenty of projects that can achieve both objectives. Despite this, capital spending is to be cut sharply, having already been cut much more than other areas of expenditure. A radical Government would have cut less productive spending and shifted the money saved into the capital budget but that is not going to happen.

It is interesting that very famous politicians here, until very recently, were vehemently opposed in principle to the entire notion of cutting capital expenditure. For example, in July last year, not so long ago, a famous politician, when capital expenditure was to be reduced to a higher base than it is currently, stated:

Reductions in capital spending are extremely disappointing. They will have a profound effect on economic activity and job creation.

I could set a question in a quiz asking if this was Deputy Gerry Adams, Deputy Michéal Martin, somebody from the left or then Senator Shane Ross.

See this speech in context