Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The IMF has admitted at this stage that it seriously underestimated the effects of austerity, as did this Government. Surely there is a compelling case not only to accelerate investment in priority infrastructure but also to bring forward plans to reform banking and to establish a strategic investment bank, as promised in the programme for Government? Does the Government still plan on creating a strategic investment bank that it would control completely and which would be guaranteed to lend to small business? An analysis by the ESRI has shown that despite cuts and tax increases of €23 billion introduced by the Government, between 2009 and 2012, the deficit only narrowed by €8.8 billion, which is about one-third of the €23 billion. This shows that the Government's fiscal policy has been damaging not just in terms of jobs and growth but has not quite so efficient at narrowing the deficit. Does the Minister not think that an increase in public investment is likely to be more productive in the long term?

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