Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not missing any point.

I welcome that the Deputy has at least acknowledged that we are planning to increase capital expenditure. Four to five billion euro is not a small amount of money. It is an increase of 18% on the €27 billion already provided for additional schools and hospitals, to maintain the roads we have constructed and to provide new transport projects where needed. The Government has prioritised capital expenditure if additional resources become available to the State precisely because we accept there is a need to do so. As I stated earlier, this is enabled by the recovery that Sinn Féin claimed would not happen. Now that it is happening, we have these resources available to us.

I heard what organisations and stakeholders had to say during the National Economic Dialogue regarding the important role the State plays in capital investment. That is one of the reasons we made this decision.

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