Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Since all the projects will be in Ireland, the workers must be physically in this country to do the work. On the figure of 45,000 jobs, there is a rule of thumb for determining the number of jobs to be created per €1 million investment. The 45,000 figure refers only to the direct investment of €27 billion by the State rather than total investment which will be a much larger figure.

The Deputy asked whether the plan could be threatened in future. If a different Government were in place and it did not have the level of stability and focus on jobs that this Government had in recent years, if it failed to deliver the growth rates we have delivered or if that growth were threatened, we could be faced with what we had to deal with in 2011 when the capital plan was eviscerated because the income of the State and its capacity to fund the plan collapsed. I hope that will not happen.

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