Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The decision is, frankly, wrong. The Taoiseach referred to having too much money but the capital review involves €2.6 billion, which is paltry in investment terms. There is no such thing as "too much money". The additional €3 billion that we would get from the sale of AIB would increase that to €5.6 billion, which in itself is not enough. That is why we have also argued for the rainy-day sum to be deployed for this purpose.

The potential new Taoiseach, the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, has said that he will abandon the target set by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, of reducing our debt from 60% to 45%. He will have it at 55%. I welcome that, but we need to invest in our vital infrastructure now. The EIB being able to give us money that we can deploy through PPPs for profit is not the issue. Rather, it is the fiscal space that restricts how we spend it. The Taoiseach knows that we had money for social housing from the sale of the Bord Gáis Éireann facilities. That was €400 million that we could not spend because of the restrictions on the fiscal space. This is not about the availability of money. It is about readjusting the fiscal space. I spent yesterday talking to the Germans, who are now well disposed towards accepting that adjustment.

Will the Taoiseach put this on hold? Will he put the sale of AIB on hold until we get this agreement?

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