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

There is ample imagination in the Department of Finance when it comes to dealing with these kinds of matters. That is why this morning the Cabinet agreed to move forward with the concept of House Building Finance Ireland, which will have personnel from NAMA but will not be of NAMA because we have to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. We will fund that through money that is currently residing in ISIF. We will look to ways in which we can provide good loans in good investments to underpin in turn the release of more homes in the country.

Deputy McGrath asked about the smoothing effect. We will make full use of that smoothing effect in the capital plan. I want to see us increase capital expenditure to deal with the issues we are facing. To put into context what we are doing, last year we increased capital expenditure by 9%, which is a really significant increase compared with the previous year. Over the coming years, I plan to continue with strong rates of increase to deal with all the pressures we have in our homes, schools and universities and to do that in an affordable way and without setting off a further reaction of price levels within the economy.

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