Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

At the start of this year, the Taoiseach's predecessor told the House that the infrastructure plan was finished and ready to go. It was in an advanced enough state that the Taoiseach, during the leadership campaign, announced the figures with the then Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, smiling alongside him. Since then, it has been delayed repeatedly. Despite this, the medium-term capital investment figures in the recent budget were not changed. The delay is not about points of scale and substance, it appears to be purely presentational.

Last week, the head of the strategic communications unit announced that he would be running a campaign to sell the new infrastructure plan. How much will be spent on this and will the campaign be prepared before the Cabinet agrees the plan? The failure to deliver on capital plans is a recurrent problem with this Government. Every housing target has been missed and we discovered in recent days that work on 25% of the schools announced as beginning construction in 2015 has not started. Before the Taoiseach publishes any new plan, will he agree, or undertake to publish, a statement on the delivery of current targets? Not many statements have been made recently, although we heard for two years that the Government would build so many houses and schools. Could someone please analyse and compare what has been constructed with what was committed to, promised and announced?

See this speech in context