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

The Deputy is pointing to the very fiscal rules to prevent a form of economic behaviour happening. I remember the Deputy campaigning against those fiscal rules at the time of the referendum on the fiscal compact treaty. I remember him again and again warning of the risks of policies that could overheat the economy. What the Deputy is doing now is making use of the fiscal rules he campaigned against, and saying we should borrow more at a time when all the authorities he quoted say we should borrow less.

We are not putting our heads in the sand. I have outlined the additional actions that have been taken. Next year, capital investment in our economy will be going up by €1.5 billion. The largest two beneficiaries of that investment are transport, which in turn is to facilitate the release of more land, and housing. We can see from the first quarter of this year changes in the number of homes that have been built and in the number of planning permissions given. We have 168 actions under Rebuilding Ireland and myself and the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, will continue to look at measures that can deal with what I acknowledge to be an economic risk and something on which we must make progress from the point of view of our society.

See this speech in context