Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is the last chance saloon for many capital projects such as those in broadband and roads. When you look at the 2015 capital plan, you can see that €4.4 billion of the €6 billion envisaged for roads went predominantly towards maintaining the existing network so we are not getting any sense of expanding the existing road network. Will the Minister confine the review to current capital spending envelopes or is he going to look at alternative sources of financing? In September, the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, raised the prospect of allowing greater flexibility around rules for capital spending to assist Europe. This is in the context of the challenge this country faces from Brexit. As I said previously, we are on the front line with regard to Brexit and we need to up our game with regard with infrastructure to respond to that. Will the Minister look at increased investment from the European Investment Fund or the European Investment Bank that we can draw down on an "off the books" basis to address our infrastructural issues in a proper and cohesive manner?

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