Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I fear that we are just falling into this capital review and that we are ignoring potential sources of funding outside the traditional sources. The policy on public private partnerships is very conservative and not reflective of modern market trends. I am still at a loss to understand the Government's response to European Investment Bank, EIB, funds. I do not want to know that it has opened an office in Dublin. That is grand. It is very well for a bank to open but it needs people to come to it looking for money. We have heard consistently from the EIB that it has funds available at record low interest rates but it is not getting the projects. What is the Minister doing to try to promote projects and to promote EIB funding being used for the capital plan review? What will he do, in terms of the review of the capital plan, to encourage new forms of spending, including PPPs and other off-balance sheet measures?

President Juncker announced in September that he would be willing to discuss capital. We have discussed reviewing capital rules around expenditure. I know Deputy Eamon Ryan has raised the issue with the Select Committee on Budgetary Oversight. What is the Minister doing to try to take that opportunity?

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