Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Finally, I wish to make a helpful suggestion to the Minister with regard to the capital programme. I have examined the figures for the capital programme in the Estimates on a Department by Department basis over the past couple of years and note that even this year, it still is planned to invest €1 billion in transport, €700 million in environment, of which funds for water services may comprise quite a bit, €400 million in health and perhaps a smaller amount in education. Will the Minister consider examining the totality of the capital budget and these additional stimulus packages to ascertain whether the right mix of capital expenditure is in place across the Departments? A massive amount was invested in transport over the years and there may be a case for now spending a smaller proportion of the total on road and rail projects than was the case over the past four or five years, as some additional infrastructure has been put in place. Perhaps a greater amount could be invested in health and education, where it may be needed to cater for the younger population. Do those Departments that historically had high capital expenditure still come in with fairly high projections? The Minister should take a holistic approach to ascertain whether, were he starting today with the aforementioned €3.4 billion plus his stimulus plan, that would be how he would break it down. I am worried that the State may be trapped in the old spending patterns.

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