Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I can give that assurance to the Deputy. A meeting of the board of the NTMA held yesterday was attended by the Secretary General of my Department. I have met the National Development Finance Agency, NDFA, on a number of occasions to ensure there will be in place a robust mechanism to fund critical infrastructure. This side of the summer I will be publishing the new multi-annual capital investment programme. While it is proposed to expand the volume of money to be spent on the capital side, there are, unfortunately, restrictions on us in this regard. It is not proposed to return to the level of spend during the boom times, when at one stage €9 billion was being spent on capital works annually. We will not be able to reach those dizzy heights again for a long time. However, whatever is done will be done in the context of prudent budgeting. I want to ensure critical infrastructure deficits in the economy, in particular, housing, as mentioned by the Deputy, will be fully addressed.

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